International Business Machines Corp is looking to the building blocks of our bodies — DNA — to be the structure of next-generation microchips.

As chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs.

Artificial DNA nanostructures, or “DNA origami” may provide a cheap framework on which to build tiny microchips, according to a paper published on Sunday in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Microchips are used in computers, cell phones and other electronic devices.

“This is the first demonstration of using biological molecules to help with processing in the semiconductor industry,” IBM research manager Spike Narayan said in an interview with Reuters.

“Basically, this is telling us that biological structures like DNA actually offer some very reproducible, repetitive kinds of patterns that we can actually leverage in semiconductor processes,” he said.

The research was a joint undertaking by scientists at IBM’s Almaden Research Center and the California Institute of Technology.

Right now, the tinier the chip, the more expensive the equipment. Narayan said that if the DNA origami process scales to production-level, manufacturers could trade hundreds of millions of dollars in complex tools for less than a million dollars of polymers, DNA solutions, and heating implements.

“The savings across many fronts could add up significantly,” he said.

But the new processes are at least 10 years out. Narayan said that while the DNA origami could allow chipmakers to build frameworks that are far smaller than possible with conventional tools, the technique still needs years of experimentation and testing.

alkemical

08-27-2009, 12:54 PM

http://cryptogon.com/?p=10433

Via: Boston Globe:

Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases, it’s caused by the vaccine used to fight it.

…

Experts have long believed epidemics unleashed by a vaccine’s mutated virus wouldn’t last since the vaccine only contains a weakened virus strain — but that assumption is coming under pressure. Some experts now say that once viruses from vaccines start circulating they can become just as dangerous as wild viruses.

“The only difference is that this virus was originally in a vaccine vial,” said Olen Kew, a virologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Record Month for Renewable Energy in the U.S.
Aug 19, 09 | submitted by Ryan

The latest Electric Power Monthly Report released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows net U.S. electrical generation from renewable sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, hydro, and wind) reached an all-time high in May of 2009, comprising 13% of the total electrical generation for the month.

Renewable sources for May '09 generated 40,395,000 Megawatt hours (Mwh), 7.7% higher than for May of 2008, and thus far the highest figure ever reported by the EIA.

Total generations for all sources, including fossil and renewable, was down for May of 2009 from the previous year by 4.1%, representing the third-largest percentage decline in national power generation since 1974.

WITH 20/20 hindsight, financial crashes seem inevitable, yet we never see them coming. Now a team of physicists and financiers have bucked the trend by successfully predicting a steep fall in the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Their model, which employs concepts from the physics of complex atomic systems, was developed by Didier Sornette of the Financial Crisis Observatory in Zurich, Switzerland, and Wei-Xing Zhou of the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. The idea is that if a plot of the logarithm of the market's value over time deviates upwards from a straight line, it's a clear warning that people are investing simply because the market is rising rather than paying heed to the intrinsic worth of companies. By projecting the trend, the team can predict when growth will become unsustainable and the market will crash.

alkemical

08-28-2009, 07:22 AM

http://www.goarmy.com/JobDetail.do?id=292

Internment/Resettlement Specialist (31E)
Active Duty Army Reserve

Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; and coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel.

Some of your duties as an Internment/Resettlement Specialist may include:

* Assist with the supervision and management of confinement and detention operations
* Provide external security to confinement/corrections facilities or detention/internment facilities
* Provide counseling and guidance to individual prisoners within a rehabilitative program
* Prepare or review reports and records of prisoners/internees and programs

Job training for an Internment/Resettlement Specialist requires nine weeks of Basic Training, where you'll learn basic Soldiering skills, and eight weeks of Advanced Individual Training. Part of this time is spent in the classroom and part in a field environment. Some of the skills you'll learn are:

* An ability to think and react quickly
* An ability to remain calm in stressful situations
* An interest in law enforcement and crime prevention
* Being physically fit

back to top
ADVANCED RESPONSIBILITIES

Advanced level Internment/Resettlement Specialist provides guidance, supervises and trains other Soldiers within the same discipline. As an advanced level I/R Specialist, you may be involved in:

* Supervise and establish all administrative, logistical and food support operations, confinement/correctional, custodial, treatment, and rehabilitative activities
* Responsible for all personnel working in the confinement/correctional facility, including security, logistical, and administrative management of the prisoner/internee population
* Provide command and control, staff planning, administration/logistical services, and custody/control for the operation of an Enemy Prisoner of War/Civilian Internee (EPW/CI) camp
* Provide command and control, staff planning, administration/logistical services, and custody/control for the operation of detention facility or the operation of a displaced civilian (DC) resettlement facility

back to top
RELATED CIVILIAN JOBS

The skills you'll learn as an Internment/Resettlement Specialist will help prepare you for a future with federal, state, county or city law enforcement agencies or the federal penal system. You might also be able to pursue a career as a security guard with industrial firms, airports or other businesses and institutions.
back to top
RELATED ARMY POSITIONS

Learn more about the relationship between military training and civilian certification requirements.

Visit the Army Credentialing Opportunities Site
back to top

alkemical

08-28-2009, 07:24 AM

http://www.physorg.com/news170586562.html

(PhysOrg.com) -- Entropy can decrease, according to a new proposal - but the process would destroy any evidence of its existence, and erase any memory an observer might have of it. It sounds like the plot to a weird sci-fi movie, but the idea has recently been suggested by theoretical physicist Lorenzo Maccone, currently a visiting scientist at MIT, in an attempt to solve a longstanding paradox in physics.

A rogue, misfolded protein is enough to trigger prion diseases such as mad cow disease, laying to rest the notion that a virus has to be involved as well.

Prion diseases seem to start with changes in the shape of the prion protein found in mammalian brains. Mysteriously, this prompts other identical prions to change shape as well. These misfolded proteins build up leading to brain damage and often death, the theory goes. Since no one is sure how a rogue prion can persuade others to follow suit, some researchers have insisted a virus must be involved as well.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw that headline on tomorrows MSNBC homepage. With the amount of unconstitutional “Czars” created under Obama now topping 28, (second most ever, being 5). Until it is formally declared though, it can be the title of this article. Why such a biting sarcasm you ask? Well… I suppose there is an element of dramatic effect in my motives, but honestly it is more a result of my feeling of betrayal.

If you are unaware of who Shepard Fairey is, you may be more familiar with his enormously popular poster portraying President Obama is the harbinger of hope. Now Fairey has bridged his preference for a political spokesman with his other “hope”; a bright future of clean energy and responsibility to the planet. As a matter of fact, that is this author’s hope as well, but that hope comes with a strict requirement for it to be done in a way that is actually effective, built on a sustainable model rather than a bubble model, and not created for and by the banks as the current reform plan is.

<img src="http://www.infowars.com/images/fairey.jpg">

alkemical

08-28-2009, 12:43 PM

http://www.physorg.com/news170416769.html

New Research Examines How Career Dreams Die
August 25th, 2009 by Jeff Grabmeier

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study shows just what it takes to convince a person that he isn't qualified to achieve the career of his dreams.

alkemical

08-31-2009, 07:32 AM

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/alkemical23

Hey fans of this thread - you can RSS feed my news links, and please - if you like what i've done here - try to make your way to transitioning over to this.

More news from the “death from above” front: Boeing just announced the successful testing of their Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL). Not familiar with the ATL? Well, according to Wired‘s David Hambling here’s what it’s capable of:

The Advanced Tactical Laser, weighing twelve thousand pounds and mounted in a Hercules transport plane, is intended to give Special Forces Command ‘ultra-precision strike capability’ against a wide range of ground targets. Its power is somewhere in the hundred-kilowatt range. According to the developers, the accuracy of this weapon is little short of supernatural. They claim that the pinpoint precision can make it lethal or non-lethal at will. For example, they say it can either destroy a vehicle completely, or just damage the tires to immobilize it.

But that’s not even close to what’s got the military so hot and bothered about this thing’s capabilities. Hambling asserts that Boeing’s ATL “will allow Special Forces to strike with maximum precision, from long distances—without being blamed from the attacks. ‘Plausible deniability’ is how the presentation put it.”

Or, in simpler terms, the ATL can carry out covert assassinations with zero accountability. Cause of death, forensically speaking? Struck by lightning.

alkemical

09-08-2009, 11:13 AM

I've been testing the google reader and twitter, i also have a blog page as well.

I'm working at streamlining these things, but have any of you guys/gals tested these things out? Do you like them, what would you like better?

Eventually i want to get the google reader piped into a regular web page, which updates twitter, facebook and myspace -

Two whistleblowers, both formerly involved in secret research and development projects undertaken by US defense agencies, have independently verified their secret teleportation to US bases on Mars, and to meeting intelligent Martian extraterrestrial life. Their accounts are now available on the Internet, and can be seen below in this article.

One of the whistleblowers, Arthur Neumann, is a former employee of the US National Security Agency (NSA), who until recently referred to himself as Henry Deacon for fear of retaliation by the NSA.

On July 25, 2009, at the European Exopolitics Congress in Barcelona, Mr. Neumann publicly stated, “There is life on Mars. There are bases on Mars. I have been there.” The following day, Mr. Neumann participated in Futuretalk, a Project Camelot documentary interview, in which he provided details of his teleporting to a base on Mars and participating in a one-hour NSA project meeting, which was also attended by representatives of an intelligent civilization that lives in cities under the surface of Mars.

The other whistleblower, lawyer Andrew D. Basiago, is a former child participant in a secret time travel project launched by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In a six-hour interview released August 31, 2009, Mr. Basiago “relates his experiences in DARPA’s Project Pegasus during the period 1969 to 1972, and describes probes to past and future events that he took via teleportation and chronovision during the early days of time-space exploration by the US government. “He [Mr. Basiago] confirms that the United States has been teleporting individuals to Mars for decades and recounts the awe-inspiring and terrifying trips that he took to Mars in 1981 after he was tapped to go there because he had teleported as a child participant in Project Pegasus.”

Mr. Basiago has also publicly confirmed that in 1970, in the company of his late father, Raymond F. Basiago, an engineer for The Ralph M. Parsons Company who worked on classified aerospace projects, he met three Martian astronauts at the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Company facility in Wood Ridge, New Jersey while the Martians were there on a liaison mission to Earth and meeting with US defense-technical personnel.

Two whistleblowers, both formerly involved in secret research and development projects undertaken by US defense agencies, have independently verified their secret teleportation to US bases on Mars, and to meeting intelligent Martian extraterrestrial life. Their accounts are now available on the Internet, and can be seen below in this article.

One of the whistleblowers, Arthur Neumann, is a former employee of the US National Security Agency (NSA), who until recently referred to himself as Henry Deacon for fear of retaliation by the NSA.

On July 25, 2009, at the European Exopolitics Congress in Barcelona, Mr. Neumann publicly stated, “There is life on Mars. There are bases on Mars. I have been there.” The following day, Mr. Neumann participated in Futuretalk, a Project Camelot documentary interview, in which he provided details of his teleporting to a base on Mars and participating in a one-hour NSA project meeting, which was also attended by representatives of an intelligent civilization that lives in cities under the surface of Mars.

The other whistleblower, lawyer Andrew D. Basiago, is a former child participant in a secret time travel project launched by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In a six-hour interview released August 31, 2009, Mr. Basiago “relates his experiences in DARPA’s Project Pegasus during the period 1969 to 1972, and describes probes to past and future events that he took via teleportation and chronovision during the early days of time-space exploration by the US government. “He [Mr. Basiago] confirms that the United States has been teleporting individuals to Mars for decades and recounts the awe-inspiring and terrifying trips that he took to Mars in 1981 after he was tapped to go there because he had teleported as a child participant in Project Pegasus.”

Mr. Basiago has also publicly confirmed that in 1970, in the company of his late father, Raymond F. Basiago, an engineer for The Ralph M. Parsons Company who worked on classified aerospace projects, he met three Martian astronauts at the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Company facility in Wood Ridge, New Jersey while the Martians were there on a liaison mission to Earth and meeting with US defense-technical personnel.

Two whistleblowers, both formerly involved in secret research and development projects undertaken by US defense agencies, have independently verified their secret teleportation to US bases on Mars, and to meeting intelligent Martian extraterrestrial life. Their accounts are now available on the Internet, and can be seen below in this article.

One of the whistleblowers, Arthur Neumann, is a former employee of the US National Security Agency (NSA), who until recently referred to himself as Henry Deacon for fear of retaliation by the NSA.

On July 25, 2009, at the European Exopolitics Congress in Barcelona, Mr. Neumann publicly stated, “There is life on Mars. There are bases on Mars. I have been there.” The following day, Mr. Neumann participated in Futuretalk, a Project Camelot documentary interview, in which he provided details of his teleporting to a base on Mars and participating in a one-hour NSA project meeting, which was also attended by representatives of an intelligent civilization that lives in cities under the surface of Mars.

The other whistleblower, lawyer Andrew D. Basiago, is a former child participant in a secret time travel project launched by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In a six-hour interview released August 31, 2009, Mr. Basiago “relates his experiences in DARPA’s Project Pegasus during the period 1969 to 1972, and describes probes to past and future events that he took via teleportation and chronovision during the early days of time-space exploration by the US government. “He [Mr. Basiago] confirms that the United States has been teleporting individuals to Mars for decades and recounts the awe-inspiring and terrifying trips that he took to Mars in 1981 after he was tapped to go there because he had teleported as a child participant in Project Pegasus.”

Mr. Basiago has also publicly confirmed that in 1970, in the company of his late father, Raymond F. Basiago, an engineer for The Ralph M. Parsons Company who worked on classified aerospace projects, he met three Martian astronauts at the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Company facility in Wood Ridge, New Jersey while the Martians were there on a liaison mission to Earth and meeting with US defense-technical personnel.

I don't believe this not even one bit...

alkemical

09-11-2009, 09:32 AM

none the less, it's an awesome read.

Punisher

09-11-2009, 09:47 AM

none the less, it's an awesome read.

You ever heard of the time traveler john titor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

alkemical

09-11-2009, 09:56 AM

You ever heard of the time traveler john titor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

yep.

also richard c hoagland always talks about the structures on cydonia - so i found the orignal story in context interesting.

Rohirrim

09-11-2009, 11:19 AM

I don't believe this not even one bit...

I don't see why not. They provided photographic evidence of one of the Martians:

also richard c hoagland always talks about the structures on cydonia - so i found the orignal story in context interesting.

Hoagland is a piece of cheese, I just finished the book that whatshisface always talks about and boy what a waste of time. The man has little or no knowledge of physics or imaging theory, the evidence presented in his book is pathetic at best and it is no surprise that it hasn't been published in a scientific magazine.

Two whistleblowers, both formerly involved in secret research and development projects undertaken by US defense agencies, have independently verified their secret teleportation to US bases on Mars, and to meeting intelligent Martian extraterrestrial life. Their accounts are now available on the Internet, and can be seen below in this article.

One of the whistleblowers, Arthur Neumann, is a former employee of the US National Security Agency (NSA), who until recently referred to himself as Henry Deacon for fear of retaliation by the NSA.

On July 25, 2009, at the European Exopolitics Congress in Barcelona, Mr. Neumann publicly stated, “There is life on Mars. There are bases on Mars. I have been there.” The following day, Mr. Neumann participated in Futuretalk, a Project Camelot documentary interview, in which he provided details of his teleporting to a base on Mars and participating in a one-hour NSA project meeting, which was also attended by representatives of an intelligent civilization that lives in cities under the surface of Mars.

The other whistleblower, lawyer Andrew D. Basiago, is a former child participant in a secret time travel project launched by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). In a six-hour interview released August 31, 2009, Mr. Basiago “relates his experiences in DARPA’s Project Pegasus during the period 1969 to 1972, and describes probes to past and future events that he took via teleportation and chronovision during the early days of time-space exploration by the US government. “He [Mr. Basiago] confirms that the United States has been teleporting individuals to Mars for decades and recounts the awe-inspiring and terrifying trips that he took to Mars in 1981 after he was tapped to go there because he had teleported as a child participant in Project Pegasus.”

Mr. Basiago has also publicly confirmed that in 1970, in the company of his late father, Raymond F. Basiago, an engineer for The Ralph M. Parsons Company who worked on classified aerospace projects, he met three Martian astronauts at the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Company facility in Wood Ridge, New Jersey while the Martians were there on a liaison mission to Earth and meeting with US defense-technical personnel.

Am I the only one who thinks there is a much greater probability that these two were paid to make outrageous claims to make the conspiracy people look crazy than that their claims are actually true?

Hogan11

09-12-2009, 09:27 AM

Full body apparition captured at Gettysburg (on the right hand side)......real or not?

http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/gburgapparitionanigiffinal.gif

http://joshuapwarren.com/

Rohirrim

09-12-2009, 11:13 AM

Full body apparition captured at Gettysburg (on the right hand side)......real or not?

http://shadowboxent.brinkster.net/gburgapparitionanigiffinal.gif

http://joshuapwarren.com/

Flashlight covers one guy, but not the other guy, filmed through a night vision device?

DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together, even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn't be able to. Explanation: None, at least not yet.

Scientists are reporting evidence that contrary to our current beliefs about what is possible, intact double-stranded DNA has the “amazing” ability to recognize similarities in other DNA strands from a distance. Somehow they are able to identify one another, and the tiny bits of genetic material tend to congregate with similar DNA. The recognition of similar sequences in DNA’s chemical subunits, occurs in a way unrecognized by science. There is no known reason why the DNA is able to combine the way it does, and from a current theoretical standpoint this feat should be chemically impossible.

Even so, research published in ACS’ Journal of Physical Chemistry B, shows very clearly that homology recognition between sequences of several hundred nucleotides occurs without physical contact or presence of proteins. Double helixes of DNA can recognize matching molecules from a distance and then gather together, all seemingly without help from any other molecules or chemical signals.

In the study, scientists observed the behavior of fluorescently tagged DNA strands placed in water that contained no proteins or other material that could interfere with the experiment. Strands with identical nucleotide sequences were about twice as likely to gather together as DNA strands with different sequences. No one knows how individual DNA strands could possibly be communicating in this way, yet somehow they do. The “telepathic” effect is a source of wonder and amazement for scientists.

“Amazingly, the forces responsible for the sequence recognition can reach across more than one nanometer of water separating the surfaces of the nearest neighbor DNA,” said the authors Geoff S. Baldwin, Sergey Leikin, John M. Seddon, and Alexei A. Kornyshev and colleagues.

This recognition effect may help increase the accuracy and efficiency of the homologous recombination of genes, which is a process responsible for DNA repair, evolution, and genetic diversity. The new findings may also shed light on ways to avoid recombination errors, which are factors in cancer, aging, and other health issues.

Posted by Rebecca Sato.

SPfloppy

09-28-2009, 11:50 AM

Wow man 84 pages. I guess this makes you kind of a made guy in here

alkemical

09-28-2009, 12:02 PM

i'm transitioning over to other mediums, but now and then i find some cool stuff that i think belongs here.

The surveillance side of this is the chickenfeed. There’s something far more sinister than the simple surveillance… an angle we haven’t heard about yet.

Tice never did tell his story to Congress about this different aspect of the program.

Well, my guess is that it has something to do with providing surveillance data for this SEAS World Sim thing, and that individual Americans are being watched and potentially targeted with it. Tice’s background seems to involve a lot of traditional electronic warfare, radar and ELINT stuff. Maybe Tice’s deal involved the collection of the mobile phone GPS and/or triangulation data which would provide realtime spacial/geographic data to the SEAS system. In other words, SEAS sees you. They could bring up a map of a city and plot your path based on the information that your phone is exchanging with the mobile network.

—Synthetic Environments for Analysis and Simulation

Via: Popular Science:

Researchers from Georgia Tech have devised methods to take real-time, real-world information and layer it onto Google Earth, adding dynamic information to the previously sterile Googlescape.

They use live video feeds (sometimes from many angles) to find the position and motion of various objects, which they then combine with behavioral simulations to produce real-time animations for Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

They use motion capture data to help their animated humans move realistically, and were able to extrapolate cars’ motion throughout an entire stretch of road from just a few spotty camera angles.

From their video of an augmented virtual Earth, you can see if the pickup soccer game in the park is short a player, how traffic is on the highway, and how fast the wind is blowing the clouds across the sky.

Up next, they say they want to add weather, birds, and motion in rivers.

They will present their paper at the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality next month, but you can read a draft PDF here.

Research Credit: JB

alkemical

09-30-2009, 01:13 PM

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17884

Computer detects abuse before doctors

Computer detects abuse before doctors

* 13:25 30 September 2009 by Ewen Callaway
* For similar stories, visit the Crime and Forensics Topic Guide

Victims of domestic abuse can hide the truth from doctors, but they leave clues in their medical records that a computer program has now learned to follow.

The program could save lives by acting as an early warning system for domestic violence, flagging up possible cases of abuse to doctors months or even years before they would otherwise be detected.

"You are potentially able to detect high abuse risk years ahead of time: you don't wait for a very bad thing to happen," says Ben Reis at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, who led the new study.

Though domestic abuse occurs in up to 16 per cent of US couples every year, it's notoriously difficult for doctors and nurses to spot, Reis says. Victims and abusers frequently make excuses for emergency room visits – saying that an injury caused by a partner's assault was due to a fall, for instance. Studies have shown that some go so far as to visit different hospitals to avoid a pattern of injuries getting noticed.

Doctors are trained – or required, in some hospitals – to be on the lookout for domestic violence, but isolated emergency room visits make it difficult for them to spot patterns that could be a sign of domestic violence.

kappys

10-01-2009, 11:38 PM

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17884

Computer detects abuse before doctors

Computer detects abuse before doctors

* 13:25 30 September 2009 by Ewen Callaway
* For similar stories, visit the Crime and Forensics Topic Guide

Victims of domestic abuse can hide the truth from doctors, but they leave clues in their medical records that a computer program has now learned to follow.

The program could save lives by acting as an early warning system for domestic violence, flagging up possible cases of abuse to doctors months or even years before they would otherwise be detected.

"You are potentially able to detect high abuse risk years ahead of time: you don't wait for a very bad thing to happen," says Ben Reis at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, who led the new study.

Though domestic abuse occurs in up to 16 per cent of US couples every year, it's notoriously difficult for doctors and nurses to spot, Reis says. Victims and abusers frequently make excuses for emergency room visits – saying that an injury caused by a partner's assault was due to a fall, for instance. Studies have shown that some go so far as to visit different hospitals to avoid a pattern of injuries getting noticed.

Doctors are trained – or required, in some hospitals – to be on the lookout for domestic violence, but isolated emergency room visits make it difficult for them to spot patterns that could be a sign of domestic violence.

Not surprising. Isolated incidents which for the most part represent minor trauma are easy to make up stories for. In most of those cases Docs don't go back and look at previous visits since these aren't complicated medical patients with multiple problems but usually something more obvious like a broken bone that needs splinted.

The key though would be to get a universal health care record for all hospitals in some or another form.

"Suppose we were able to share meanings freely without a compulsive urge to impose our view or conform to those of others and without distortion and self-deception. Would this not constitute a real revolution in culture?"
-David Bohm

alkemical

11-02-2009, 10:20 AM

I'm about to "retire" from the mane.

For those of you whom are interested, i can let you know where to find me - and where the news articles are going.

If it’s easy enough for an engineer to manufacture underwear to maintain some privacy when going through the body scanners, how long before people wear entire outfits like this rendering the scans useless. The New York Daily News reports:

While holiday travelers may not get through this week without a Transportation Security Administration agent touching their junk, a man in Colorado has a new invention he says will prevent anyone from looking at it.

Jeff Buske has created a special kind of underwear with strategically placed fig-leaf designs he says will shield TSA scanners from viewing fliers’ private parts and keep travelers safe from radiation emitted from the notorious “backscatter” x-ray machines.

Buske, an engineer, said his briefs, bras and inserts, which he’s marketing under the name Rocky Top Gear, use a special metal that protects people’s privacy when undergoing medical or security screenings.
“The object is…to protect the public, educate people and ultimately see these X-ray machines put in the Dumpster,” Buske told CBS4 Denver.

[Continues at NY Daily News]

TailgateNut

11-26-2010, 10:26 AM

I'm about to "retire" from the mane.

For those of you whom are interested, i can let you know where to find me - and where the news articles are going.

If it’s easy enough for an engineer to manufacture underwear to maintain some privacy when going through the body scanners, how long before people wear entire outfits like this rendering the scans useless. The New York Daily News reports:

While holiday travelers may not get through this week without a Transportation Security Administration agent touching their junk, a man in Colorado has a new invention he says will prevent anyone from looking at it.

Jeff Buske has created a special kind of underwear with strategically placed fig-leaf designs he says will shield TSA scanners from viewing fliers’ private parts and keep travelers safe from radiation emitted from the notorious “backscatter” x-ray machines.

Buske, an engineer, said his briefs, bras and inserts, which he’s marketing under the name Rocky Top Gear, use a special metal that protects people’s privacy when undergoing medical or security screenings.
“The object is…to protect the public, educate people and ultimately see these X-ray machines put in the Dumpster,” Buske told CBS4 Denver.

[Continues at NY Daily News]

fine wear that and I bet they jut make you strip them off or you don't fly.

cutthemdown

11-26-2010, 10:58 AM

Or they would say fine you have to be groped if you underwear block part of the scan.

If it’s easy enough for an engineer to manufacture underwear to maintain some privacy when going through the body scanners, how long before people wear entire outfits like this rendering the scans useless. The New York Daily News reports:

While holiday travelers may not get through this week without a Transportation Security Administration agent touching their junk, a man in Colorado has a new invention he says will prevent anyone from looking at it.

Jeff Buske has created a special kind of underwear with strategically placed fig-leaf designs he says will shield TSA scanners from viewing fliers’ private parts and keep travelers safe from radiation emitted from the notorious “backscatter” x-ray machines.

Buske, an engineer, said his briefs, bras and inserts, which he’s marketing under the name Rocky Top Gear, use a special metal that protects people’s privacy when undergoing medical or security screenings.
“The object is…to protect the public, educate people and ultimately see these X-ray machines put in the Dumpster,” Buske told CBS4 Denver.

[Continues at NY Daily News]

So are you back from your hiatus, refreshed and ready to post crazy stories again? Or is this temporary?

randomtask

11-27-2010, 03:15 PM

If it's alright I'd like to post some articles in here from time to time. These articles are a little old, but are still very interesting nonetheless.
http://www.livescience.com/technology/041112_slow_light.html

The speed limit for light is 186,000 miles per second, but that doesn't mean it can't travel slower than that. Light moves through glass at about 60 percent of its maximum.

By bundling up light waves into special packets, physicists have proposed a stable way to slow light signals to one-millionth of the speed limit, which is about as fast as a jet aircraft.

Light has been made to go slower than this, even made to stand still. But most light packets will lose their shape when their speed is decreased -- a fact that hurts their application in the telecommunication industry.

The new packets, however, belong to a type of wave pattern, called a soliton, which has a robust shape that does not easily decay.

"Solitons were discovered in the 1800s as water waves that propagate without losing their height for miles and miles," said Lu Deng of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Optical solitons generally are light waves that travel close to the speed of light. But Deng and his colleague, Ying Wu, have devised a way to make optical solitons that travel much slower, giving them more applicability in data transfer applications.

Currently, when an optical signal traveling down a fiber needs to be routed, it is converted to an electrical signal, so that it can be stored in a buffer, while the address is read. Once its destination is known, the signal is converted from electrical back to optical and sent on its way.

But Deng said that these conversions waste resources. It would be favorable to instead simply slow down the main signal while the address is read.

This is possible in tiny cells filled with gas atoms. By shining a laser into the cell, the speed of light can be tuned to whatever the researcher wants.

The problem, though, with these cells, or "optical buffers" as they are called, is that slowing down a wave can cause it to break up -- thereby losing the signal you are trying to send.

"People have been working for years on an optical buffer," Deng said. "Unfortunately, they all have significant loss and terrible distortion."

Deng compared the signal to an ice cream scoop sliding along a table. If it moves too slowly, the ice cream melts before it arrives at its destination.

But if the signal can be converted into a soliton it should maintain its shape. Deng and Wu have shown, in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters, how this soliton transformation can be done theoretically. They are now gearing up to prove their calculations in an experiment.

Continuing with the ice cream analogy, Deng said that a slow-moving soliton wave would be like a scoop with a metal shield.

"Analogies are never perfect," he admitted. "The point is that [the non-soliton] degrades, but the soliton does not."

It sounds nuts, but a scientist says his team has made light go backward. And this is not a simple trick of mirrors.

Previous work has slowed light to a crawl. But in the new research, a pulse of light is given a negative speed and—as if just to make your head spin—the researcher says the experiment made light appear to exceed its theoretical speed limit.

If you totally confused, don't worry. This reporter doesn't get it either. Nor do a lot of really smart scientists.

"I've had some of the world's experts scratching their heads over this one," says Robert Boyd, a professor of optics at the University of Rochester. "It's weird stuff."

The research was reported in the May 12 issue of the journal Science. Though not normally stated in news reports, Science is a peer-reviewed journal. That means some experts read Boyd's paper and said it was good to publish.

That said, nobody would blame you if you stop here. Otherwise, grab a couple aspirin, have a look at depictions of the experiment in this graphic or this animation, and read on.

We're going to let Boyd do the explaining. And this next sentence is the crux of it all:

"We sent a pulse through an optical fiber, and before its peak even entered the fiber, it was exiting the other end. Through experiments we were able to see that the pulse inside the fiber was actually moving backward, linking the input and output pulses."

"The pulse of light is shaped like a hump with a peak and long leading and trailing edges. The leading edge carries with it all the information about the pulse and enters the fiber first. By the time the peak enters the fiber, the leading edge is already well ahead, exiting. From the information in that leading edge, the fiber essentially 'reconstructs' the pulse at the far end, sending one version out the fiber, and another backward toward the beginning of the fiber."

Faster than light

Let's put that another way, verbatim from a statement issued by the University of Rochester:

"As the pulse enters the material, a second pulse appears on the far end of the fiber and flows backward. The reversed pulse not only propagates backward, but it releases a forward pulse out the far end of the fiber. In this way, the pulse that enters the front of the fiber appears out the end almost instantly, apparently traveling faster than the regular speed of light."

What about Einstein, who said nothing can exceed light-speed?

"Einstein said information can't travel faster than light, and in this case, as with all fast-light experiments, no information is truly moving faster than light," Boyd said.

A spokesperson at the university's communications department added this: "Everything that defines the pulse that enters, also defines the pulse that exits. But the energy of the light does not travel faster than light."

snowspot66

11-27-2010, 03:24 PM

Yeah....it's time to start funneling cash into solar power beyond the token amounts we currently do.

I am pretty sure I am either 6 and sometimes a 2. I am rarely a 1. Your posts are almost always food for thought agree or disagree good stuff.

You are appreciated here even by the ones who don't say they read your stuff. Think about it. 10 years from now when there brain stem actually catches a spark it might be one of your posts that actually created the connection!

Who knew!

Maybe we should have a category for Politics Board Jeebus. Save us JEEBUS!

alkemical

01-12-2011, 06:22 AM

Where the White Stag Runs - Boundary and Transformation in Deer Myths, Legends, and Song (http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrstag.html)s - by Ari Berk

Down from the houses of magic,
Down from the houses of magic,
Blow the winds, and from my antlers
And my ears they stronger gather.

Over there I ran trembling,
Over there I ran trembling,
For bows and arrows pursued me.
Many bows were on my trail.

—Black Tailed Deer Song, Pima

This is a good read on the Deer mythology. Read then when sipping on jagr in a rocks class with some ice....

Then go dance and run in the light of the moon. ;)

alkemical

01-12-2011, 06:54 AM

Good Morning Americans;

I wanted to address you this morning with the aim of driving progress towards a goal. This goal isn't "my" goal, but should be our goal. I need your help though in trying to get us to where we need to be.

There is going to be pain in reaching this goal. We are going to have to work for it, and sacrifice for it. We need to hold ourselves accountable, first and foremost.

This goal involves us evolving past the current state of affairs in which we find ourselves in presently. Through my own growth, I have moved through out different point of views, as well as looking at the world through others' eyes.

This is a time for work. Not relating to your job specifically, as this relates to the core items we need to start undertaking if we want to ensure our future. We need to grow up, and move out of the adolescence and selfishness we have grown accustomed to. Currently we seem to be in a state like teenagers. We have grown used to things as they are, but we aren't prepared for what is coming next.

We need to prepare ourselves for these next 30 years. This isn't about buying gold and silver...But it is about reclaiming responsibility and freedom.

This starts and the individual level. For those of you whom are very scared and worried for varied reasons: Crime, Terror, Economics, etc. I offer you no promises that events will be "peachy" and the world will be "awesome".

As stated over the next 30 years, there is a lot of work to be done. I want you to do things based out good intention. Don't be reactionary and do things about of fear or panic.

Fear and panic is part of the problem. Do things out of different intentions. For example:

With rising food costs, concerns over GMO, general economic conditions; many people are turning to farming and gardening. Everything from growing food in their gardens, to the urbanAG movement going on in cities and suburbia. Those embracing hydroponics for reasons beyond the typical stereotype.

If enough people grow their own food, the impact of the food "crisis" won't be nearly as severe. In some ways, what i'm advocating is that we do things that may seem the opposite of our conditioning: Hoarding, panic, disorder.

With all of this talk, speculation, commercialization of 2012 many people are looking for a magical solution to the problems of today. those people will become further disillusioned, as we have seen with the hopes and dreams that people have pegged onto political elections.

I find hope to be one of the evils in Pandora's box. This is where I decided to write you a letter:

One thing I've learned is that the future takes root in the present. What are you doing right now, today to make tomorrow better? What are you doing right now today, to get to where you want to be?

This is where it's time to go to work. This is where it's time to stop bitching, moaning, blaming, and theiving. This is the time to stop being petty and to be adult. This is the time where we have to work to achieve the goals of putting us on the track of where we need to be.

If this means that we stop participating in the systems that have failed us, and create new systems to compete and possibly replace the failing ones - then we need to work today, and tomorrow, and the day after. You can't put 15 minutes into something and expect results.

I'm engaged in setting up an expansive network of local growers, expanding the number of growers, and getting local business involved in purchasing localAG.

In addition, i'm working on getting a local currency launched in my area. I view this as a way to help stabilize a local economy, and helps keep things fluid in the local ecology.

I feel, as difficult as it maybe to suggest - and with the amount of time that has been spent on "language", and "rhetoric" in the past few days - that we all change our language. Language is more powerful than you may realize. If you change the words you use each day, the words you consume each day - the world will become different.

I urge you to expand your boundries of thought in reaching out to people with different ideas and finding ways to work together. You don't have to agree, that's the point and intention. The goal is to be proficient in your own mindshare to work with people and ideas that aren't the normal for you.

All of this takes work. If you are really serious about changing things, it starts with you - each day - everyday - to get yourself where you want to be. If you focus on going to work, and accomplishing these goals - as well as your neighbor, and my neighbor - eventually the changes will come to a position where we won't be participating in obligations that are currently failing us.

I'm going to work today: I have a business plan to write up, I have a few calls scheduled after work - and i'm installing an indoor garden for a client of mine who has his lettuces, tomatoes, peppers lined up for his pizza shop.

In addition, i'm also changing words I've used and focusing on empowering people each day to realize that most of the shackles are imaginary.

Thanks for your time...

Now it's time to get back to work.

alkemical

01-12-2011, 12:54 PM

http://www.gizmag.com/superstrong-metallic-glass-developed/17557/

Superstrong metallic glass developed

By Jude Garvey

21:03 January 11, 2011

The team from the Berkeley Lab and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) created a pure glass material with a unique chemical composition that when placed under pressure, makes the glass form multiple shear bands rather than developing a crack. This property makes it much more damage-tolerant than other metallic glass.

Robert Ritchie, a materials scientist who led the Berkeley contribution to the research, said, “These results mark the first use of a new strategy for metallic glass fabrication and we believe we can use it to make glass that will be even stronger and more tough,”

“Because of the high bulk-to-shear modulus ratio of palladium-containing material, the energy needed to form shear bands is much lower than the energy required to turn these shear bands into cracks,” Ritchie said, “The result is that glass undergoes extensive plasticity in response to stress, allowing it to bend rather than crack.”

Initially, the Berkeley-Caltech collaboration made a metallic glass where the propagation of cracks was blocked by micro-structural barriers. This new work produced a glass that increased plasticity ahead of an opening crack, through the addition of palladium. The initial samples of the glass were microalloys of palladium with phosphorous, silicon and germanium, this yielded glass rods that were about one millimeter in diameter. By adding silver the researchers were able to expand the thickness of the rods to six millimeters.

“The rule of thumb is that to make a metallic glass we need to have at least five elements so that when we quench the material, it doesn’t know what crystal structure to form and defaults to amorphous,” Ritchie said.

The barge used one-tenth as much water as a comparable field farm. There was no agricultural run-off, and chemical pesticides were replaced with natural predators such as ladybirds. Operating all year round, the barge could grow 20 times more than could have been produced by a field of the same size, says Dr Caplow.

Solar panels and wind turbines on the barge meant that it could produce food with near-zero net carbon emissions. But the greenhouses on the barge were only one story high, so there was not much need for artificial lighting. As soon as you start trying to stack greenhouses on top of each other you run into problems, says Dr Caplow. Based on his experience with the Science Barge, he has devised a rule of thumb: generating enough electricity using solar panels requires an area about 20 times larger than the area being illuminated. For a skyscraper-sized hydroponic farm, that is clearly impractical. Vertical farming will work only if it makes use of natural light, Dr Caplow concludes.

One idea, developed by Valcent, a vertical-farming firm based in Texas, Vancouver and Cornwall, is to use vertically stacked hydroponic trays that move on rails, to ensure that all plants get an even amount of sunlight. The company already has a 100-square-metre working prototype at Paignton Zoo in Devon, producing rapid-cycle leaf vegetable crops, such as lettuce, for the zoo’s animals. The VerticCrop system ensures an even distribution of light and air flow, says Dan Caiger-Smith of Valcent. Using energy equivalent to running a desktop computer for ten hours a day it can produce 500,000 lettuces a year, he says. Growing the same crop in fields would require seven times more energy and up to 20 times more land and water.

But VertiCrop uses multiple layers of stacked trays that operate within a single-storey greenhouse, where natural light enters from above, as well as from the sides. So although this boosts productivity, it doesn’t help with multi-storey vertical farms.

Via Technoccult

One idea, developed by Valcent, a vertical-farming firm based in Texas, Vancouver and Cornwall, is to use vertically stacked hydroponic trays that move on rails, to ensure that all plants get an even amount of sunlight. The company already has a 100-square-metre working prototype at Paignton Zoo in Devon, producing rapid-cycle leaf vegetable crops, such as lettuce, for the zoo’s animals. The VerticCrop system (pictured) ensures an even distribution of light and air flow, says Dan Caiger-Smith of Valcent. Using energy equivalent to running a desktop computer for ten hours a day it can produce 500,000 lettuces a year, he says. Growing the same crop in fields would require seven times more energy and up to 20 times more land and water.

But VertiCrop uses multiple layers of stacked trays that operate within a single-storey greenhouse, where natural light enters from above, as well as from the sides. So although this boosts productivity, it doesn’t help with multi-story vertical farms.

Materials that can repair themselves are generally a good thing, as they increase the lifespan of products created from them, and reduce the need for maintenance. Biorenewable polymers are also pretty likable, as they reduce or even eliminate the need for petroleum products in plastic production, replacing them with plant-derived substances. Michael Kessler, an Iowa State University associate professor of materials science and engineering, and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, is now attempting to combine the two.

Self-healing materials generally incorporate microcapsules containing a liquid healing agent, and catalyst elements, which are embedded within the material’s matrix. As cracks form within the matrix, the microcapsules rupture, releasing the healing agent. As soon as that agent encounters the catalyst, it hardens into three-dimensional polymer chains, thus filling and securing the cracks. Such technology has been used not only to create self-healing plastics, but also self-healing concrete.

Since 2005, Kessler has been working with Iowa State’s Prof. Richard Larock on the development of biorenewable polymers made from vegetable oils. Larock is the inventor of a process wherein bioplastics can be created that consist of 40 to 80 percent inexpensive natural oils – these plastics reportedly have very good thermal and mechanical properties, are good at dampening noises and vibrations, and are also very good at returning to their original shape when heated.

Kessler is now trying to create self-healing versions of these same plastics.

One thing he has deduced so far is that a healing agent for a tung oil-based polymer works too fast. Kessler and his colleagues are now working on slowing down the reactive process of that agent, while also developing biopolymer-friendly encapsulating techniques, and bio-based healing agents.

The big challenge, he says, is to match the 90 percent healing efficiency of standard synthetic composites.

A team of scientists at Penn State University has discovered an unexpected process that is required for regeneration after severe neuron injury. The research will be published in the print edition of the scientific journal Current Biology on 21 December 2010.

The study might provide insights for future researchers who are developing drug therapies for patients with nerve disease or damage.

“We already know a lot about axons — the part of the nerve cell that is responsible for sending signals,” said Melissa Rolls, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. “However, dendrites — the receiving end of nerve cells — have always been quite mysterious.”

Unlike axons, which form large, easily recognizable bundles, dendrites are highly branched and often buried deep in the nervous system, so they have always been harder to visualize and to study.

However, Rolls and her team were able to get around these difficulties. They looked inside dendrites in vivo by using a simple model organism — the fruit fly — whose nerve cells are similar to human nerve cells. One of the first mysteries they tackled was the layout of microtubules.

The first ever vaccine for drug addiction has just been created. By combining a cocaine-like molecule with part of the common cold virus, you get a vaccine that turns the immune system against cocaine, keeping it away from the brain.

So far, the vaccine has only been tested on mice, but the results are extraordinary. Mice given the vaccine no longer exhibited any of the hyperactive signs of a cocaine high when they were next given the drug.

The vaccine was created by taking just the part of the cold virus that alerts the body’s immune system to its presence, and then researchers connected the signalling mechanism to a more stable version of the cocaine molecule.

Brit Liggett
Renewable Energy Now Neck and Neck with Nuclear in the US

New renewable energy projects are popping up left and right and we’re stoked to report that in 2010, the amount of green energy generation was finally on par with that of nuclear. According to data just released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, nuclear energy generation and renewable energy generation both accounted for approximately 11% of the United States’ entire power supply in the first nine months of 2010. What’s even better is that while nuclear power is floundering, renewable energy generation is on the rise.

Going Local to Break the Veil on Green Job Creation
Matthew C. Nisbet on January 11, 2011, 6:51 PM
Obamgreenjobsplant

At the Energy Innovation 2010 conference I attended last month, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency Cathy Zoi said something that I found very interesting about Obama's economic stimulus package: "With 7,000 projects nationwide under management, the mystery of green jobs has dissipated... if we can communicate it effectively"

The conditional statement by the former head of Gore's We campaign signaled to me that the Administration recognized that more work was needed to not only sell the public on the benefits of the overall stimulus package, but specifically the energy innovation-related funding.

On this challenge, the White House could not have been happier with the front page spread at the Metro section of the opinion-leading Washington Post this past Saturday. Headlined "Obama gets a crystal clear-clear view of economic stimulus' effects," the article spotlights a trip that Obama made to suburban Maryland's Thompson Creek plant.

The family owned window manufacturer has benefited from booming sales, driven by Obama's tax credit for home energy improvements. The firm currently features 16 job openings on its Web site and has hired more than 80 people under a separate Obama incentive program that rewards employers who bring on people who have been laid off.

This type of localized communication strategy--communicating the regional benefits of a national program-- is what is needed more from the Administration. Only if there were more time to put Obama, Biden, and other Administration VIPs on the road.

The downside is that as I wrote last week, the revised tax breaks for home energy improvements, given their reduced financial returns, are not likely to generate nearly as much local news or public attention. With reduced financial stimulus will come reduced communication stimulus on the issue of energy efficiency.

Odysseus

01-12-2011, 08:24 PM

Wow man 84 pages. I guess this makes you kind of a made guy in here

This place is diaspora.

In the Catholicism this is purgatory a place that does not exist even in the bible.

Fear, ignorance, loathing and discontent live here.

This is that dumpster in back of a Seven 11 where the fellas hang out because it's all that they know.

The place is Zombieland where you get to be Bill Murray and play around too much, or you get to slaughter zombies, or you are the zombie you just don't know it. The Zombie kill of they day could be your favorite poster.

Warning: All 640,000+ @WikiLeaks Followers Now Subject to U.S. Government Subpoena Of Twitter

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Odysseus

01-12-2011, 08:30 PM

Good Morning Americans;

I wanted to address you this morning with the aim of driving progress towards a goal. This goal isn't "my" goal, but should be our goal. I need your help though in trying to get us to where we need to be.

There is going to be pain in reaching this goal. We are going to have to work for it, and sacrifice for it. We need to hold ourselves accountable, first and foremost.

This goal involves us evolving past the current state of affairs in which we find ourselves in presently. Through my own growth, I have moved through out different point of views, as well as looking at the world through others' eyes.

This is a time for work. Not relating to your job specifically, as this relates to the core items we need to start undertaking if we want to ensure our future. We need to grow up, and move out of the adolescence and selfishness we have grown accustomed to. Currently we seem to be in a state like teenagers. We have grown used to things as they are, but we aren't prepared for what is coming next.

We need to prepare ourselves for these next 30 years. This isn't about buying gold and silver...But it is about reclaiming responsibility and freedom.

This starts and the individual level. For those of you whom are very scared and worried for varied reasons: Crime, Terror, Economics, etc. I offer you no promises that events will be "peachy" and the world will be "awesome".

As stated over the next 30 years, there is a lot of work to be done. I want you to do things based out good intention. Don't be reactionary and do things about of fear or panic.

Fear and panic is part of the problem. Do things out of different intentions. For example:

With rising food costs, concerns over GMO, general economic conditions; many people are turning to farming and gardening. Everything from growing food in their gardens, to the urbanAG movement going on in cities and suburbia. Those embracing hydroponics for reasons beyond the typical stereotype.

If enough people grow their own food, the impact of the food "crisis" won't be nearly as severe. In some ways, what i'm advocating is that we do things that may seem the opposite of our conditioning: Hoarding, panic, disorder.

With all of this talk, speculation, commercialization of 2012 many people are looking for a magical solution to the problems of today. those people will become further disillusioned, as we have seen with the hopes and dreams that people have pegged onto political elections.

I find hope to be one of the evils in Pandora's box. This is where I decided to write you a letter:

One thing I've learned is that the future takes root in the present. What are you doing right now, today to make tomorrow better? What are you doing right now today, to get to where you want to be?

This is where it's time to go to work. This is where it's time to stop b****ing, moaning, blaming, and theiving. This is the time to stop being petty and to be adult. This is the time where we have to work to achieve the goals of putting us on the track of where we need to be.

If this means that we stop participating in the systems that have failed us, and create new systems to compete and possibly replace the failing ones - then we need to work today, and tomorrow, and the day after. You can't put 15 minutes into something and expect results.

I'm engaged in setting up an expansive network of local growers, expanding the number of growers, and getting local business involved in purchasing localAG.

In addition, i'm working on getting a local currency launched in my area. I view this as a way to help stabilize a local economy, and helps keep things fluid in the local ecology.

I feel, as difficult as it maybe to suggest - and with the amount of time that has been spent on "language", and "rhetoric" in the past few days - that we all change our language. Language is more powerful than you may realize. If you change the words you use each day, the words you consume each day - the world will become different.

I urge you to expand your boundries of thought in reaching out to people with different ideas and finding ways to work together. You don't have to agree, that's the point and intention. The goal is to be proficient in your own mindshare to work with people and ideas that aren't the normal for you.

All of this takes work. If you are really serious about changing things, it starts with you - each day - everyday - to get yourself where you want to be. If you focus on going to work, and accomplishing these goals - as well as your neighbor, and my neighbor - eventually the changes will come to a position where we won't be participating in obligations that are currently failing us.

I'm going to work today: I have a business plan to write up, I have a few calls scheduled after work - and i'm installing an indoor garden for a client of mine who has his lettuces, tomatoes, peppers lined up for his pizza shop.

In addition, i'm also changing words I've used and focusing on empowering people each day to realize that most of the shackles are imaginary.

Thanks for your time...

Now it's time to get back to work.

I wish there were more people who stood up and stopped the bull****.

baja

01-12-2011, 09:01 PM

Good Morning Americans;

I wanted to address you this morning with the aim of driving progress towards a goal. This goal isn't "my" goal, but should be our goal. I need your help though in trying to get us to where we need to be.

There is going to be pain in reaching this goal. We are going to have to work for it, and sacrifice for it. We need to hold ourselves accountable, first and foremost.

This goal involves us evolving past the current state of affairs in which we find ourselves in presently. Through my own growth, I have moved through out different point of views, as well as looking at the world through others' eyes.

This is a time for work. Not relating to your job specifically, as this relates to the core items we need to start undertaking if we want to ensure our future. We need to grow up, and move out of the adolescence and selfishness we have grown accustomed to. Currently we seem to be in a state like teenagers. We have grown used to things as they are, but we aren't prepared for what is coming next.

We need to prepare ourselves for these next 30 years. This isn't about buying gold and silver...But it is about reclaiming responsibility and freedom.

This starts and the individual level. For those of you whom are very scared and worried for varied reasons: Crime, Terror, Economics, etc. I offer you no promises that events will be "peachy" and the world will be "awesome".

As stated over the next 30 years, there is a lot of work to be done. I want you to do things based out good intention. Don't be reactionary and do things about of fear or panic.

Fear and panic is part of the problem. Do things out of different intentions. For example:

With rising food costs, concerns over GMO, general economic conditions; many people are turning to farming and gardening. Everything from growing food in their gardens, to the urbanAG movement going on in cities and suburbia. Those embracing hydroponics for reasons beyond the typical stereotype.

If enough people grow their own food, the impact of the food "crisis" won't be nearly as severe. In some ways, what i'm advocating is that we do things that may seem the opposite of our conditioning: Hoarding, panic, disorder.

With all of this talk, speculation, commercialization of 2012 many people are looking for a magical solution to the problems of today. those people will become further disillusioned, as we have seen with the hopes and dreams that people have pegged onto political elections.

I find hope to be one of the evils in Pandora's box. This is where I decided to write you a letter:

One thing I've learned is that the future takes root in the present. What are you doing right now, today to make tomorrow better? What are you doing right now today, to get to where you want to be?

This is where it's time to go to work. This is where it's time to stop b****ing, moaning, blaming, and theiving. This is the time to stop being petty and to be adult. This is the time where we have to work to achieve the goals of putting us on the track of where we need to be.

If this means that we stop participating in the systems that have failed us, and create new systems to compete and possibly replace the failing ones - then we need to work today, and tomorrow, and the day after. You can't put 15 minutes into something and expect results.

I'm engaged in setting up an expansive network of local growers, expanding the number of growers, and getting local business involved in purchasing localAG.

In addition, i'm working on getting a local currency launched in my area. I view this as a way to help stabilize a local economy, and helps keep things fluid in the local ecology.

I feel, as difficult as it maybe to suggest - and with the amount of time that has been spent on "language", and "rhetoric" in the past few days - that we all change our language. Language is more powerful than you may realize. If you change the words you use each day, the words you consume each day - the world will become different.

I urge you to expand your boundries of thought in reaching out to people with different ideas and finding ways to work together. You don't have to agree, that's the point and intention. The goal is to be proficient in your own mindshare to work with people and ideas that aren't the normal for you.

All of this takes work. If you are really serious about changing things, it starts with you - each day - everyday - to get yourself where you want to be. If you focus on going to work, and accomplishing these goals - as well as your neighbor, and my neighbor - eventually the changes will come to a position where we won't be participating in obligations that are currently failing us.

I'm going to work today: I have a business plan to write up, I have a few calls scheduled after work - and i'm installing an indoor garden for a client of mine who has his lettuces, tomatoes, peppers lined up for his pizza shop.

In addition, i'm also changing words I've used and focusing on empowering people each day to realize that most of the shackles are imaginary.

Thanks for your time...

Now it's time to get back to work.

Did you write this Josh

alkemical

01-13-2011, 07:04 AM

Did you write this Josh

I did.

alkemical

01-13-2011, 07:05 AM

Wow man 84 pages. I guess this makes you kind of a made guy in here

Just determined to share... ;)

alkemical

01-13-2011, 07:09 AM

This place is diaspora.

In the Catholicism this is purgatory a place that does not exist even in the bible.

Fear, ignorance, loathing and discontent live here.

This is that dumpster in back of a Seven 11 where the fellas hang out because it's all that they know.

The place is Zombieland where you get to be Bill Murray and play around too much, or you get to slaughter zombies, or you are the zombie you just don't know it. The Zombie kill of they day could be your favorite poster.

Who would want to be a made man here?

Cannibal Animals.....can-able animals...

baja

01-13-2011, 07:18 AM

I did.

Like - local grown

Like - local currency

Like - Living with Intention

Good stuff Josh. Good to see you posting here too.

alkemical

01-13-2011, 08:55 AM

Like - local grown

Like - local currency

Like - Living with Intention

Good stuff Josh. Good to see you posting here too.

Thanks Baja.

alkemical

01-13-2011, 01:16 PM

Also,

To anyone who gardens - or plans to garden. I also am selling a product that can help plants grow better.

It helps with soil and water remediation. Contact me directly for more information:

PM me...

Also - This does work. I have tested it out, and have had other friends use it and just works. It works for both soil, and water media.

Thanks,

Josh

alkemical

01-17-2011, 07:11 PM

I'm working on a way to articulate this concept in a better way:

Fractals are a symbiotic language of art and math that reflect patterns of an object. The patters not only illustrate the archetypal foundations in the structre/biology of an organism, but also the patterns that can be related spatially (sp?) from behaviour.

Principle of this idea came to me many years ago, in which I realized all living things create a pattern of behaviour.

Example: ants build, and do what ants do. but if you examine a complex ant ecology, it's structures, tunnels, organization...are all scripted.

This can be illustrated with fractals.

I'm trying to articulate this subject in a clearer manner that is more easily accesible.

thanks for any ideas/suggestions.

Kaylore

01-17-2011, 08:54 PM

Alkemical? Autothonian?

alkemical

01-17-2011, 09:29 PM

Alkemical? Autothonian?

?

Odysseus

01-18-2011, 02:22 AM

Cannibal Animals.....can-able animals...

Wandering the truth in search of self.

alkemical

01-18-2011, 06:39 AM

Wandering the truth in search of self.

I've been there. Percival was my name once.

alkemical

01-18-2011, 08:48 AM

2010 | Year of the Ghost (http://www.skilluminati.com/research/entry/2010_year_of_the_ghost/#)

In the Year of the Ghost, though, human relationships are defined by databases. Acxiom, Experian, the Dun & Bradstreet and the InfoUSA. "Secure the list," as Karl Rove used to put it. Segmentation is an artform, and you have to truly hate human beings to do it honestly and accurately.

We get the leaders we deserve -- but that's not Karma, that's because candidates are tailor made to fit us. The 2010 Elections were a startling victory for political consultants, because it was a "Proof of Concept" illustration that they no longer need to rely on the DNC/RNC system for candidates. Rather than "positioning" damaged goods from a dying breed -- career politicians and public servants -- they can now focus on building candidates from the ground up. Mere campaigns are gone now. The Tea Party was a sandbox for product testing. There will be more.

The message is not all that gets focus-tested...goals need research, too. The real artistry is where political campaigns and social engineering overlap: finding the sweet spot where the vested interests of the wealthiest 1% can be positioned into wedge issues that motivate the bottom 99%. In this respect, 2010 was a triumph for invisible power. This year marked the conclusion of a 50 Year Plan and the emergence of a new American majority which has been built entirely by dead men.
image

From the top of the pyramid, there is no pyramid. It's a simple fact, but often lost on those of us watching from below, taking notes on the power structure and sifting through clues every day. The view from the cockpit is very different from what the rest of the plane sees. As Bill Moyers said of David Rockefeller: "What some critics see as a vast international conspiracy, he considers a circumstance of life, and just another days work."

What most Americans call consensus reality is a fabricated narrative that's been carefully tested and calibrated for over a century now. Throughout decades of focus groups and scientific polling and cognitive infiltration and psychological operations, the number one client has always been America itself, or at least America the brand, America the image. Making the world safe for Democracy. Everything is phrasing in the Year of the Ghost.

"Write the plan, position the client, write the copy, secure the list, design the package, supervise and generate some production here, and set up a system to analyze the response, to understand what worked and what didn't." -- Karl Rove

A free enterprise system, a strong national defense, and support for traditional Western values. Horrible things always sound so harmless when you hire professional copywriters. Is a New Populist Revolt on the Way? Well, Viguerie actually wrote that entire script back in 1984, and you can still get it on Amazon.

The overlap between marketing and politics is inevitable when both of them cater to the lowest common denominator and the biggest possible audience. History is full of marketing men who had successful careers working in politics: Walter Lippmann, Ivy Lee, Tim LaHaye, and the notorious self-promoting usurper Edward Bernays. Nothing changes, either. In 2008, Brian Collins and company won the Ad Age prize for Marketer of the Year. Their project? Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

There is more in this article, but it is a good read from my POV. Thanks again for your support.

I've focused more on education and finding solutions. Mirror Magazine is going to be relaunched and I have a pending distribution agreement with an entertainment company.

~Al

alkemical

01-18-2011, 10:09 AM

Here's a great primer for the Prison Industrial Complex (http://www.skilluminati.com/research/entry/the_united_states_is_the_least_free_nation_in_the_ world/)

New Type Of Entanglement Allows 'Teleportation in Time,' Say Physicists

Conventional entanglement links particles across space. Now physicists say a similar effect links particles through time.

gyldenlove

01-18-2011, 01:30 PM

I'm working on a way to articulate this concept in a better way:

Fractals are a symbiotic language of art and math that reflect patterns of an object. The patters not only illustrate the archetypal foundations in the structre/biology of an organism, but also the patterns that can be related spatially (sp?) from behaviour.

Principle of this idea came to me many years ago, in which I realized all living things create a pattern of behaviour.

Example: ants build, and do what ants do. but if you examine a complex ant ecology, it's structures, tunnels, organization...are all scripted.

This can be illustrated with fractals.

I'm trying to articulate this subject in a clearer manner that is more easily accesible.

thanks for any ideas/suggestions.

Fractals describe anything that is self organizing and repeats the same patterns at multiple levels of scale. Blood vessels are very much fractal, to some extend so are nerve cells. Water currents are fractal as well.

The simplicity of fractals is that you can formulate a few simple rules, and from those rules you can generate a system that as it grows, always serves the perfect function. Look at a tree or a bush, no matter where you look, you always see thicker branches sprouting thinner branches, for ever and ever, it never ends.

alkemical

01-18-2011, 01:59 PM

Fractals describe anything that is self organizing and repeats the same patterns at multiple levels of scale. Blood vessels are very much fractal, to some extend so are nerve cells. Water currents are fractal as well.

The simplicity of fractals is that you can formulate a few simple rules, and from those rules you can generate a system that as it grows, always serves the perfect function. Look at a tree or a bush, no matter where you look, you always see thicker branches sprouting thinner branches, for ever and ever, it never ends.

I like this, thanks for your input. I am very interested in this topic...If you want to discuss more or share more - please by all means, i appreciate it.

I agree, and that's what i'm trying to express/illustrate.

alkemical

01-19-2011, 01:57 PM

Can Our DNA Electromagnetically 'Teleport' Itself? One Researcher Thinks So

Planck peels back the layers of the universe
Although cosmology results won’t be ready for another 2 years, initial results include observations of specific objects in our Milky Way, as well as more distant galaxies.

Your brain is electric. Tiny impulses constantly race among billions of interconnected neurons, generating an electric field that surrounds the brain like an invisible cloud. A new study published online July 15 in Neuron suggests that the brain’s electric field is not a passive by-product of its neural activity, as scientists once thought. The field may actively help regulate how the brain functions, especially during deep sleep. Although scientists have long known that external sources of electricity (such as electroshock therapy) can alter brain function, this is the first direct evidence that the brain’s native electric field changes the way the brain behaves.

Scientific American: Neural Feedback: Brain Influences Itself with Its Own Electric Field

gyldenlove

01-19-2011, 03:20 PM

I like this, thanks for your input. I am very interested in this topic...If you want to discuss more or share more - please by all means, i appreciate it.

I agree, and that's what i'm trying to express/illustrate.

Fractals are really interesting because they are so complex to look at, yet often so simple to generate. Normally you would think a pattern of infinite complexity and scale would require an infinite amount of rules, but that is not at all true.

I especially love the Mandelbrot set, which I know is the most basic fractal, but also illustrates so beautifully what fractals are about. It is generated from a single equation: Z(n+1)=Z(n)^2+c, c is in the complex plane and is in the set if Z(n) remains below a threshold for any value of n. If you look at that equation you would think the set would be trivial, but when you look at it you see the iconic shape of a pacman like figure with a smaller circle attached to it and a tail sticking out with hair around the edge, but when you zoom on the edge of the set you see the same shape again, and when you zoom on that the same shape again, and so on forever, and I do mean forever.

It is really mindboggling how one really simple equation and condition can produce a set of that complexity, a set that you couldn't reproduce in any other way no matter how many equations and conditions you are allowed to use.

It is the same for a tree, if you look at the ration of the thickness of a branch over the distance from the base of the branch to the first offshoot branch, it is almost constant, for any branch on the tree and it is identical for any tree of that type (for instance oak). Instead of making a complex set of rules, the tree just knows that when the branch is this thick I have to grow a branch here, and that instruction is repeated over and over, and it yields a structure with optimal coverage that won't break under its own weight no matter if it is big or small.

alkemical

01-20-2011, 06:08 AM

Fractals are really interesting because they are so complex to look at, yet often so simple to generate. Normally you would think a pattern of infinite complexity and scale would require an infinite amount of rules, but that is not at all true.

I especially love the Mandelbrot set, which I know is the most basic fractal, but also illustrates so beautifully what fractals are about. It is generated from a single equation: Z(n+1)=Z(n)^2+c, c is in the complex plane and is in the set if Z(n) remains below a threshold for any value of n. If you look at that equation you would think the set would be trivial, but when you look at it you see the iconic shape of a pacman like figure with a smaller circle attached to it and a tail sticking out with hair around the edge, but when you zoom on the edge of the set you see the same shape again, and when you zoom on that the same shape again, and so on forever, and I do mean forever.

It is really mindboggling how one really simple equation and condition can produce a set of that complexity, a set that you couldn't reproduce in any other way no matter how many equations and conditions you are allowed to use.

It is the same for a tree, if you look at the ration of the thickness of a branch over the distance from the base of the branch to the first offshoot branch, it is almost constant, for any branch on the tree and it is identical for any tree of that type (for instance oak). Instead of making a complex set of rules, the tree just knows that when the branch is this thick I have to grow a branch here, and that instruction is repeated over and over, and it yields a structure with optimal coverage that won't break under its own weight no matter if it is big or small.

I had found a ton of fractal youtube videos with the Mandelbrot and other fractals that show the illustration of this.

I love it. I don't know if i can discuss it on a mathematical level with you, but I'd be happy to share the appreciation in some of it. :)

What also impresses me, is how the mandalas are also fractals. I think of fractals like those magic eye puzzles, and if you look at them right - you see the "true" nature.

baja

01-20-2011, 06:24 AM

Fractals are really interesting because they are so complex to look at, yet often so simple to generate. Normally you would think a pattern of infinite complexity and scale would require an infinite amount of rules, but that is not at all true.

I especially love the Mandelbrot set, which I know is the most basic fractal, but also illustrates so beautifully what fractals are about. It is generated from a single equation: Z(n+1)=Z(n)^2+c, c is in the complex plane and is in the set if Z(n) remains below a threshold for any value of n. If you look at that equation you would think the set would be trivial, but when you look at it you see the iconic shape of a pacman like figure with a smaller circle attached to it and a tail sticking out with hair around the edge, but when you zoom on the edge of the set you see the same shape again, and when you zoom on that the same shape again, and so on forever, and I do mean forever.

It is really mindboggling how one really simple equation and condition can produce a set of that complexity, a set that you couldn't reproduce in any other way no matter how many equations and conditions you are allowed to use.

It is the same for a tree, if you look at the ration of the thickness of a branch over the distance from the base of the branch to the first offshoot branch, it is almost constant, for any branch on the tree and it is identical for any tree of that type (for instance oak). Instead of making a complex set of rules, the tree just knows that when the branch is this thick I have to grow a branch here, and that instruction is repeated over and over, and it yields a structure with optimal coverage that won't break under its own weight no matter if it is big or small.

That is fascinating and makes me wonder how anyone can believe life is random chance.

This is a pretty amazing idea — the roads might even be able to charge electric cars while they travel using mutual induction! Check out Solar Roadways:

Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to “paint” the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.

In 2009, we received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build the first ever Solar Road Panel prototype. During the course of its construction, we learned many lessons and discovered new and better ways to approach this project. These methods and discoveries are discussed throughout this website…

Flexible screens expected to inspire a host of new devices
January 20, 2011

Source: PhysOrg.com — Jan 19, 2011

Hewlett-Packard researchers expect to deliver to the U.S. Army this year a working prototype of a “Dick Tracy wristwatch” — a lightweight, wearable device that soldiers in the field can use to view digital maps and other data on a flexible plastic screen that won’t shatter or crack like glass. The prototype could be one of the first in a new wave of products incorporating flexible electronic displays.

baja

01-20-2011, 06:35 AM

Do it to parking lots and power the store they support and charge the cars while they are parked there.

alkemical

01-20-2011, 06:38 AM

Do it to parking lots and power the store they support and charge the cars while they are parked there.

Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation
Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”, Nasa has warned.

___

Since I listen to C2C, and am familiar with Maj. Ed Dames' stance that a series of solar flares will drastically change life as we know it:

http://www.remoteviewingproducts.com/killshot.cfm

A number of forecasts by Ed Dames' team of professional remote viewers have come to pass, exactly as described. In the course of standard operations, however, the team stumbled across a catastrophic event - now dubbed 'The Killshot' - actually a series of powerful, deadly solar flares which will be impacting the Earth in the near future! The effects of Killshot are seen as causing such an extreme amount of destruction and loss of life that a large portion of RV data collection resources has been allocated for study and analysis.

In the Killshot DVD, Major Dames presents all of the data that he and his professional team have amassed, looking through time, in an attempt to piece together the global effects of this catastrophic geophysical event.

Here's a great primer for the Prison Industrial Complex (http://www.skilluminati.com/research/entry/the_united_states_is_the_least_free_nation_in_the_ world/)

Military or prison is a paradigm that many Americans are increasingly being forced to choose between. Institutional crime versus criminal institutions versus corporate greed? A lot of families are trapped in that triangle. Work three jobs, join the military or play the crime game.

What amazes me is how many congressman belong in jail. How is that statistic not on the front pages of major media?

Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation
Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”, Nasa has warned.

___

Since I listen to C2C, and am familiar with Maj. Ed Dames' stance that a series of solar flares will drastically change life as we know it:

http://www.remoteviewingproducts.com/killshot.cfm

A number of forecasts by Ed Dames' team of professional remote viewers have come to pass, exactly as described. In the course of standard operations, however, the team stumbled across a catastrophic event - now dubbed 'The Killshot' - actually a series of powerful, deadly solar flares which will be impacting the Earth in the near future! The effects of Killshot are seen as causing such an extreme amount of destruction and loss of life that a large portion of RV data collection resources has been allocated for study and analysis.

In the Killshot DVD, Major Dames presents all of the data that he and his professional team have amassed, looking through time, in an attempt to piece together the global effects of this catastrophic geophysical event.

___

He's been calling this for several years.

This is well documented but nobody seems to be doing anything about this at the upper levels. Y2k was bull****. This is actually real.

alkemical

01-20-2011, 06:50 AM

Military or prison is a paradigm that many Americans are increasingly being forced to choose between. Institutional crime versus criminal institutions versus corporate greed? A lot of families are trapped in that triangle. Work three jobs, join the military or play the crime game.

What amazes me is how many congressman belong in jail. How is that statistic not on the front pages of major media?

Collusion. :)

alkemical

01-20-2011, 07:13 AM

This is well documented but nobody seems to be doing anything about this at the upper levels. Y2k was bull****. This is actually real.

I've been following this for a bit and agree.

baja

01-20-2011, 07:42 AM

The Killshot DVD is on Youtube;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2tFcZKM-3o&feature=related

alkemical

01-20-2011, 12:23 PM

2010 | Year of the Ghost (http://www.skilluminati.com/research/entry/2010_year_of_the_ghost/#)

This is a pretty amazing idea — the roads might even be able to charge electric cars while they travel using mutual induction! Check out Solar Roadways:

Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to “paint” the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.

In 2009, we received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build the first ever Solar Road Panel prototype. During the course of its construction, we learned many lessons and discovered new and better ways to approach this project. These methods and discoveries are discussed throughout this website…

I read about this and it is amazing technology. I have to admit I am skeptical as to its ultimate benefits because I still foresee a replacement of wheels within the reasonable future, but the concept of thin surface solar generators has a LOT of applications, think roofing, parking lots as suggested, walls of industrial complexes etc. There is a plant in Germany I know of that make super efficient solar panels, they generate 2 to 3 times more electricity than regular panels using some highly sophisticated technology, but combined with the flexible thin screens a lot of companies are working on for electronics, this could ultimately be something you put on top of your roofing or parking lot and generate all the power you need.

gyldenlove

01-20-2011, 01:32 PM

That is fascinating and makes me wonder how anyone can believe life is random chance.

Because you can create a system like that with 1 rule. There is no design required, just 1 rule and you get infinite complexity.

alkemical

01-20-2011, 01:55 PM

I read about this and it is amazing technology. I have to admit I am skeptical as to its ultimate benefits because I still foresee a replacement of wheels within the reasonable future, but the concept of thin surface solar generators has a LOT of applications, think roofing, parking lots as suggested, walls of industrial complexes etc. There is a plant in Germany I know of that make super efficient solar panels, they generate 2 to 3 times more electricity than regular panels using some highly sophisticated technology, but combined with the flexible thin screens a lot of companies are working on for electronics, this could ultimately be something you put on top of your roofing or parking lot and generate all the power you need.

You and I are in agreement, and we also seem to follow the same tech feeds. I know you've spent time on this thread...so I appreciate your interests and conversation.

I also had seen solar paint, etc as well. I'm very excited about the solutions coming up for real problems.

baja

01-20-2011, 02:12 PM

Because you can<b> create a system </b>like that with 1 rule. There is no design required, just 1 rule and you get infinite complexity.

Your own words defeat you.

Do you really think something so elegantly designed is just a random occurrence?

alkemical

01-21-2011, 07:00 AM

Despite the intense skepticism, a small community of scientists is still investigating near-room-temperature fusion reactions. The latest news occurred last week, when Italian scientists Andrea Rossi and Sergio Focardi of the University of Bologna announced that they developed a cold fusion device capable of producing 12,400 W of heat power with an input of just 400 W. Last Friday, the scientists held a private invitation press conference in Bologna, attended by about 50 people, where they demonstrated what they claim is a nickel-hydrogen fusion reactor. Further, the scientists say that the reactor is well beyond the research phase; they plan to start shipping commercial devices within the next three months and start mass production by the end of 2011.

Dr. Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland, outlined the scenario to news.com.au. Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's brightest stars, is losing mass, indicating it is collapsing. It could run out of fuel and go super-nova at any time.

When that happens, for at least a few weeks, we'd see a second sun, Carter says. There may also be no night during that timeframe.

The Star Wars-esque scenario could happen by 2012, Carter says... or it could take longer. The explosion could also cause a neutron star or result in the formation of a black hole 1300 light years from Earth, reports news.com.au.

But doomsday sayers should be careful about speculation on this one. If the star does go super-nova, Earth will be showered with harmless particles, according to Carter. "They will flood through the Earth and bizarrely enough, even though the supernova we see visually will light up the night sky, 99 per cent of the energy in the supernova is released in these particles that will come through our bodies and through the Earth with absolutely no harm whatsoever," he told news.com.au.

In fact, a neutrino shower could be beneficial to Earth. According to Carter this "star stuff" makes up the universe. "It literally makes things like gold, silver - all the heavy elements - even things like uranium....a star like Betelgeuse is instantly forming for us all sorts of heavy elements and atoms that our own Earth and our own bodies have from long past supernovi," said Carter.

We’ve heard of supermarket hydroponics before: window hanging, wall-mounted, and rooftop farm concepts have been abundant over the last decade. Truthfully, though, how many have you actually seen? Throughout 2011, the New York hydroponics firm Better Food Solutions plans to change that by installing a network of hydroponic greenhouses atop a number of grocery stores across the nation. The group, also behind the New York “Greenhouse Project” and Brightfarms Systems, believes that by working with grocery stores they can provide local food and further prove that hydroponics is the future of agriculture.

gyldenlove

01-25-2011, 12:16 PM

Your own words defeat you.

Do you really think something so elegantly designed is just a random occurrence?

Yup.

Try to write down 1 million random simple mathematical equations, I bet you at least one of them will produce an infinitely complex system. If you sit for an hour and just push random keys on the keyboard you will never write out a Shakespeare sonnet, but you will write out a few 3, 4 and maybe 5 letters words by chance, if you try enough systems you will also happen upon a few simple ones that produce something useful - that is the nature of the random, the simple is much more likely to happen than the complex - so simple rules point to a simple cause.

Odysseus

01-25-2011, 12:59 PM

Collusion. :)

Military Industrial complex used to be a triangle but I think it's more like a spider right now.

alkemical

01-25-2011, 01:25 PM

Military Industrial complex used to be a triangle but I think it's more like a spider right now.

I wouldn't want those metal tabs to pull out the drawers when my drunk ass stumbles up there to go bed, one of those things could split a toe right open. Why not just make a groove in the front of the drawer?

United-States-CongressNo, it’s not an Onion headline. Indiana Republican Dan Burton wants to encase the House of Representatives within impenetrable Plexiglas for protection from the outside world. CBS News writes:

An aide to Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) tells CBS News that the Indiana Republican plans to introduce legislation next week that would encase the House Gallery in “a transparent and substantial material” such as Plexiglas that would keep members of the public from being able to throw explosives or make other attacks on members on the House floor.

Burton has introduced similar legislation in the past. It reads in part, “The Architect of the Capitol shall enclose the visitors’ galleries of the House of Representatives with a transparent and substantial material, and shall install equipment so that the proceedings on the floor of the House of Representatives will be clearly audible in the galleries.”

A past version of the legislation, which will be reintroduced in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday, references past attacks on Congress. Among them are a 1915 bombing by a man protesting U.S. involvement in World War 1, the shooting of five members of Congress by Puerto Rican nationalists during a House vote in 1954, and a the placing of a bomb by the Weather Underground in a Senate bathroom in 1971. (The bomb went off early and no one was hurt.)

Burton is not the only lawmakers pressing for extra security precautions in the wake of the Giffords shooting. Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois announced today that he is pushing to have members’ office budgets increased to cover additional security measures. The new GOP House cut members’ budgets by five percent last week. Jackson says that cut should be reversed and another ten percent should be added to budgets to cover installing cameras at district offices, hiring security guards and other measures.

To add to the discussion started by Danny Schechter’s post Does Fascism Lurk Around The Corner In The USA?, here is the beginning of Chris Hedges’ column from March of last year, Is America ‘Yearning for Fascism’?:

The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans. The impoverishment of a working class and the snuffing out of hope and opportunity always produce angry mobs ready to kill and be killed. A bankrupt, liberal elite, which proves ineffectual against the rich and the criminal, always gets swept aside, in times of economic collapse, before thugs and demagogues emerge to play to the passions of the crowd. I have seen this drama. I know each act. I know how it ends. I have heard it in other tongues in other lands. I recognize the same stock characters, the buffoons, charlatans and fools, the same confused crowds and the same impotent and despised liberal class that deserves the hatred it engenders.

“We are ruled not by two parties but one party,” Cynthia McKinney, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket, told me. “It is the party of money and war. Our country has been hijacked. And we have to take the country away from those who have hijacked it. The only question now is whose revolution gets funded.”

The Democrats and their liberal apologists are so oblivious to the profound personal and economic despair sweeping through this country that they think offering unemployed people the right to keep their unemployed children on their nonexistent health care policies is a step forward. They think that passing a jobs bill that will give tax credits to corporations is a rational response to an unemployment rate that is, in real terms, close to 20 percent. They think that making ordinary Americans, one in eight of whom depends on food stamps to eat, fork over trillions in taxpayer dollars to pay for the crimes of Wall Street and war is acceptable. They think that the refusal to save the estimated 2.4 million people who will be forced out of their homes by foreclosure this year is justified by the bloodless language of fiscal austerity. The message is clear. Laws do not apply to the power elite. Our government does not work. And the longer we stand by and do nothing, the longer we refuse to embrace and recognize the legitimate rage of the working class, the faster we will see our anemic democracy die.

The unraveling of America mirrors the unraveling of Yugoslavia. The Balkan war was not caused by ancient ethnic hatreds. It was caused by the economic collapse of Yugoslavia. The petty criminals and goons who took power harnessed the anger and despair of the unemployed and the desperate. They singled out convenient scapegoats from ethnic Croats to Muslims to Albanians to Gypsies. They set in motion movements that unleashed a feeding frenzy leading to war and self-immolation. There is little difference between the ludicrous would-be poet Radovan Karadzic, who was a figure of ridicule in Sarajevo before the war, and the moronic Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. There is little difference between the Oath Keepers and the Serbian militias. We can laugh at these people, but they are not the fools. We are.

US State Department cables leaked by Wikileaks, and analyzed today in the New York Times, show how the Obama administration avoided "public confrontations" with Hosni Mubarak over issues human rights.

Another cable, dated March 2009, offered a pessimistic analysis of the prospects for the "April 6 Movement," a Facebook-based group of mostly young Egyptians that has received wide attention for its lively political debate and helped mobilize the protests that have swept Egypt in the last two days. Leaders of the group had been jailed and tortured by the police. There were also signs of internal divisions between secular and Islamist factions, it said.

The United States has defended bloggers with little success. When Ambassador Scobey raised several arrests with the interior minister, he replied that Egypt did not infringe on freedom of the press, but that it must respond when "people are offended by blogs." An aide to the minister told the ambassador that The New York Times, which has reported on the treatment of bloggers in Egypt, was "exaggerating the blogger issue," according to the cable.

American diplomats also cast a wide net to gather information on police brutality, the cables show. Through contacts with human rights lawyers, the embassy follows numerous cases, and raised some with the Interior Ministry. Among the most harrowing, according to a cable, was the treatment of several members of a Hezbollah cell detained by the police in late 2008.

Lawyers representing the men said they were subjected to electric shocks and sleep deprivation, which reduced them to a "zombie state." They said the torture was more severe than what they normally witnessed.

Ben & Jerry’s, the iconic American ice cream brand, has teamed up with Paques, a biotechnology company, to install a bio-digester in their Hellendoorn ice cream factory in the Netherlands. The new bio-digester will take excess food product that is wasted during the making of ice cream and turn it into power to provide energy for the factory. The bio-digester will cover 40% of the factory’s green energy requirements — will it make the ice cream 40% more delicious too?

alkemical

01-28-2011, 10:52 AM

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=14043

Birds use quantum theory to literally 'see' Earth's magnetic field as they fly

Paving new bike paths is a great way to encourage carbon-free transportation and cut car emissions, and now The Netherlands is getting ready to roll out an energy-generating solar cycle path. The project, known as SolaRoad, has been developed by the TNO research institute along with the Province of North Holland, the Ooms Avenhorn Group and Imtech. It is currently slated to be constructed in the town of Krommenie, near Amsterdam.

Read the rest of Netherlands to Roll Out Energy-Generating SolaRoad Bike Pathhttp://www.inhabitat.com/wp-admin/ohttp://www.inhabitat.com/wp-admin/options-general.php?page=better_feedptions-general.php?page=better_feed

As a psychiatrist, Aboujaoude said he sees many patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the behavioral shifts brought about by Internet use. In 2006, he and other Stanford researchers published the results of a major study on problematic Internet habits that included more than 2,500 adults.

But Aboujaoude said that the dangers of the e-personality don't just apply to those with the most extreme Internet habits. Potentially, he said, everyone who connects to the Web is changed.

"Society at large is becoming a more angry, uncivil place," he said, pointing to the violent rhetoric that preceded the recent tragedy in Tucson and the vitriol surrounding the health care law debates last summer. "We should ask ourselves if one reason we've become so uncivil is because of what we do online and how we act on our blogs and in our chat rooms."

His arguments echo those of Nicholas Carr, who recently published "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains." Aboujaoude says the fast-moving, information-overloaded Internet conditions people to become impulse-driven, impatient and unfocused.

h-frequency trading networks, which complete stock market transactions in microseconds, are vulnerable to manipulation by hackers who can inject tiny amounts of latency into them. By doing so, they can subtly change the course of trading and pocket profits of millions of dollars in just a few seconds, says Rony Kay, a former IBM research fellow and founder of cPacket Networks, a Silicon Valley firm that develops chips and technologies for network monitoring and traffic analysis.

Kay, an Israeli-born computer scientist and one-time Intel engineering manager, says the root of the problem is the increasing speed of networks; as they get faster and faster, our ability to actually understand events taking place within them isn’t keeping up. Network monitoring technology can detect perturbations in network traffic happening in milliseconds, but when changes occur in microseconds, they’re not visible, he says.

alkemical

02-01-2011, 06:22 AM

http://www.stealthisknowledge.com/americas-impending-police-state/

During times of war, governments are notorious for capitalizing on their ability to suppress dissent and manipulate the masses. In the wake of 9/11 hysteria, the Bush administration enacted several controversial pieces of legislation that severely curtailed Americans’ freedoms under the pretext of “security” and “protection”. With the help of a consistently compliant and unquestioning media, his administration also instituted a legal framework to circumvent citizens’ civil liberties and target their free speech. Bush’s cabinet adopted Orwellian rhetoric and Nazi style propaganda to litigate sweeping measures that further eradicated liberty: The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act’s (USA Patriot Act) warrantless domestic wiretapping, and the Homegrown Terrorism Act & Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act’s criminalization of thought and peaceful activism.

Nine years after 9/11 and two years into Obama’s reign, the vague threat of terrorism still hangs in perpetual balance as the justifying cliché for the administration’s continuation of such Bush-era policies. Obama has followed the same Bush trends of illegal detention, rendition, wiretapping, spying, state secrets, demonization, persecution and fear mongering against the population. Obama has aggressively cracked down on whistleblowers exposing military corruption as well as given a green light to assassinate US citizens abroad without due process of law. One of the most disturbing trends in the ever-expanding police state are the new Z Backscatter vans, vehicles that are giant X ray machines, designed to discreetly scan through people’s houses and cars without their knowledge – a surveillance tool that blatantly violates fourth amendment rights.

Like Orwell’s portrayal, the US government’s expanding power structure relies on nationalist propaganda to manufacture and cultivate the fear of an enemy. Although the War on Terrorism has consumed the political climate for almost a decade, the chances of actually dying in a terrorist attack in the United States are statistically insignificant. This little mentioned fact undermines the current administration’s justification for their extension of state powers and secrecy in order to protect the country’s “national security”.

It’s critically important to create dialogue about America’s covert slide to fascism. Absolute power corrupts absolutely– our politicians and their corporate puppeteers will continue their greedy power grabs unabated unless our society starts speaking out against the dehumanization and the unconstitutionality of the emerging police state.

Arteries with highly elastic protein overcome barrier for living vascular grafts
February 1, 2011 by Editor

University of Pittsburgh researchers have grown arteries that exhibit the elasticity of natural blood vessels at the highest levels reported, a development that could overcome a major barrier to creating living-tissue replacements for damaged arteries.

The team used smooth muscle cells from adult baboons to produce the first arteries grown outside the body that contain a substantial amount of the pliant protein elastin, which allows vessels to expand and retract in response to blood flow. Lead researcher Yadong Wang, a professor of bioengineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, his postdoctoral researcher Kee-Won Lee, and Donna Stolz, a professor of cell biology and physiology in Pitt’s School of Medicine, cultured the baboon cells in a nutrient-rich solution to bear arteries with approximately 20 percent as much elastin as an inborn artery.

The Pitt process is notable for its simplicity, Wang said. Elastin—unlike its tougher counterpart collagen that gives vessels their strength and shape—has been notoriously difficult to reproduce. The only successful methods have involved altering cell genes with a virus; rolling cell sheets into tubes; or culturing elastin with large amounts of transforming growth factor, Wang said. And still these previous projects did not report a comparison of elastin content with natural vessels.

alkemical

02-01-2011, 04:47 PM

http://www.dangerousminds.net/images/uploads/pussytosurvive.jpg

alkemical

02-01-2011, 04:50 PM

www.dangerousminds.net/images/uploads/pussytosurvive.jpg

You will need to fix the url, the filters break it.

loborugger

02-02-2011, 12:43 PM

http://www.stealthisknowledge.com/americas-impending-police-state/

During times of war, governments are notorious for capitalizing on their ability to suppress dissent and manipulate the masses. In the wake of 9/11 hysteria, the Bush administration enacted several controversial pieces of legislation that severely curtailed Americans’ freedoms under the pretext of “security” and “protection”. With the help of a consistently compliant and unquestioning media, his administration also instituted a legal framework to circumvent citizens’ civil liberties and target their free speech. Bush’s cabinet adopted Orwellian rhetoric and Nazi style propaganda to litigate sweeping measures that further eradicated liberty: The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act’s (USA Patriot Act) warrantless domestic wiretapping, and the Homegrown Terrorism Act & Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act’s criminalization of thought and peaceful activism.

Nine years after 9/11 and two years into Obama’s reign, the vague threat of terrorism still hangs in perpetual balance as the justifying cliché for the administration’s continuation of such Bush-era policies. Obama has followed the same Bush trends of illegal detention, rendition, wiretapping, spying, state secrets, demonization, persecution and fear mongering against the population. Obama has aggressively cracked down on whistleblowers exposing military corruption as well as given a green light to assassinate US citizens abroad without due process of law. One of the most disturbing trends in the ever-expanding police state are the new Z Backscatter vans, vehicles that are giant X ray machines, designed to discreetly scan through people’s houses and cars without their knowledge – a surveillance tool that blatantly violates fourth amendment rights.

Like Orwell’s portrayal, the US government’s expanding power structure relies on nationalist propaganda to manufacture and cultivate the fear of an enemy. Although the War on Terrorism has consumed the political climate for almost a decade, the chances of actually dying in a terrorist attack in the United States are statistically insignificant. This little mentioned fact undermines the current administration’s justification for their extension of state powers and secrecy in order to protect the country’s “national security”.

It’s critically important to create dialogue about America’s covert slide to fascism. Absolute power corrupts absolutely– our politicians and their corporate puppeteers will continue their greedy power grabs unabated unless our society starts speaking out against the dehumanization and the unconstitutionality of the emerging police state.

I think all this **** is done out of simple greed. At the end of the day, its all about accumulating as much power and wealth as possible and spouting whatever rhetoric is necessary to justify your acts (and even better, dupe the masses into going along with it).

The love of money is the root of all evil.

alkemical

02-02-2011, 12:59 PM

I think all this **** is done out of simple greed. At the end of the day, its all about accumulating as much power and wealth as possible and spouting whatever rhetoric is necessary to justify your acts (and even better, dupe the masses into going along with it).

New research published in the current issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine demonstrates the capability of tissue-engineered vascular grafts that are immediately available at the time of surgery and are less likely to become infected or obstructed. A surgeon could pull a new human vein off the shelf for use in life-saving vascular surgeries.

The bioengineering method of producing veins shows promise in large- and small-diameter applications, such as for coronary artery bypass surgery and for vascular access in hemodialysis.

Humacyte, a Morrisville biotechnology company, worked with university researchers to develop the veins.

“This new type of bioengineered vein allows them to be easily stored in hospitals so they are readily available to surgeons at the time of need,” said Dr. Alan P. Kypson, a cardiothoracic surgeon, associate professor at the Brody School of Medicine at ECU and an author of the paper. “Currently, grafting using the patient’s own veins remains the gold standard. But, harvesting a vein from the patient’s leg can lead to complications, and for patients who don’t have suitable veins, the bioengineered veins could serve as an important new way to provide a coronary bypass.”

The American Heart Association Update on Heart Disease Statistics reports that in 2007, in the United States, surgeons performed more than 400,000 coronary bypass procedures. Patients requiring bypass surgery may not have suitable veins or arteries available and are not candidates for synthetic grafts because of the size needed for grafting.

Lauren A.E. Schuker reports for the Wall Street Journal on a new text messaging service that claims to keep your secrets safe:

TigerText Inc., which can send texts that vanish from both the sender and receiver’s phone after a select period of time so they can’t be copied or forwarded, has developed a niche following among celebrities trying to keep their lives private. About half a million people have downloaded the service, which was started in February 2010 by four Los Angeles businessmen.

EAST LANSING: New research sheds light on how microorganisms are able to 'hibernate' for long periods of time. This unique ability affects entire ecosystems on Earth, and could have implications for the transport of organisms between planets.

It’s commonly known, at least among microbiologists, that microbes have an additional option to living or dying - dormancy. What isn’t known, however, is how large numbers of dormant microorganisms affect the natural environments when they act as microbial seed banks.

“Only a tiny fraction is metabolically active at any given time,” said lead author Jay Lennon, who is affiliated with Michigan State University’s (MSU) Kellogg Biological Station and MSU’s AgBioResearch. “How would our environment be altered, in terms of carbon emissions, nutrient cycling and greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide, by dramatic increases or decreases in the dormancy of microbes?”

As a psychiatrist, Aboujaoude said he sees many patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the behavioral shifts brought about by Internet use. In 2006, he and other Stanford researchers published the results of a major study on problematic Internet habits that included more than 2,500 adults.

But Aboujaoude said that the dangers of the e-personality don't just apply to those with the most extreme Internet habits. Potentially, he said, everyone who connects to the Web is changed.

"Society at large is becoming a more angry, uncivil place," he said, pointing to the violent rhetoric that preceded the recent tragedy in Tucson and the vitriol surrounding the health care law debates last summer. "We should ask ourselves if one reason we've become so uncivil is because of what we do online and how we act on our blogs and in our chat rooms."

His arguments echo those of Nicholas Carr, who recently published "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains." Aboujaoude says the fast-moving, information-overloaded Internet conditions people to become impulse-driven, impatient and unfocused.

’ve been writing about the mobile industry for a few years now, and there’s one thing that still blows my mind each and every day: the rate at which these companies are able to make new feel old. Everytime something comes along and rocks our world, someone else in the industry responds with “Oh yeah? Well our new thing is twice as fast! And twice as efficient! Oh, and ours is completely powered by the laughter of unicorns! Beat that!”

’ve been writing about the mobile industry for a few years now, and there’s one thing that still blows my mind each and every day: the rate at which these companies are able to make new feel old. Everytime something comes along and rocks our world, someone else in the industry responds with “Oh yeah? Well our new thing is twice as fast! And twice as efficient! Oh, and ours is completely powered by the laughter of unicorns! Beat that!”

Genetic Engineering: Scientists warn of link between dangerous new pathogen and Monsanto’s Roundup

Rohirrim

02-21-2011, 11:28 AM

Monsanto marches on.

alkemical

02-21-2011, 11:31 AM

Monsanto marches on.

I've been helping a lot of people up my way getting starting on gardening (both soil and water media).

It's amazing to see how much people are starting to turn their backs and reject some of these companies...I just don't know how much good it will do.

alkemical

02-21-2011, 02:27 PM

http://www.blacklistednews.com/index.php?news_id=12789

Monsanto Shifts ALL Liability to Farmers

Monsanto's Technology Stewardship Agreement shifts responsibility to growers for any and all losses, injury or damages resulting from the use of Monsanto seeds. There is no expiration date on the contract. The grower may terminate the contract, but: "Grower's responsibilities and the other terms herein shall survive..."

This includes contamination of other farms. Growers are purchasing seed for Spring planting right now. Alfalfa, America's 4th largest crop, is a particular problem because it is a perennial plant and the seeds may lie dormant in the ground for 10-20 years, and WILL contaminate non-GM plants. Contaminated alfalfa cannot be recalled from the environment. The liability burden can follow the grower for decades. Farmers must be made aware of the danger of being sued before they plant GM crops (especially alfalfa because it is used for cattle feed and will affect dairy farmers).

Currently, Australian organic farmer Steve Marsh, who lost his organic certification due to contamination, is suing his GM crop-growing neighbor for the GM contamination.
Contamination of processing equipment is another risk.

There is evidence from India that GM crops are linked to livestock deaths. The Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement contract holds growers responsible for injuries, so this is another potential consequence for farmers planting Monsanto GM crops to consider.
The Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement has another clause that farmers will find disturbing: it appears that the growers agree that in order to sell their farm, the new purchaser must also sign a Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement. According to a top real estate broker, the contract places a covenant, condition or restriction (CCR) on the farmer's land:

"GROWER AGREES: To accept and continue the obligations of this Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement on any new land purchased or leased by Grower that has Seed planted on it by a previous owner or possessor of the land; and to notify in writing purchasers or lessees of land owned by Grower that has Seed planted on it that the Monsanto Technology is subject to this Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement and they must have or obtain their own Monsanto Technology/Stewardship Agreement."

Rohirrim

02-21-2011, 02:33 PM

Here you will find behind-the-scenes details about how a large share of America’s milk supply has quietly become adulterated with the effects of a synthetic hormone (bovine growth hormone, or BGH) secretly injected into cows…and how pressure from the hormone maker Monsanto led Fox TV to fire two of its award-winning reporters and sweep under the rug much of what they discovered but were never allowed to broadcast.

After a five-week trial and six hours of deliberation which ended August 18, 2000, a Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH." In that decision, the jury also found that Jane's threat to blow the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the FCC was the sole reason for the termination... and the jury awarded $425,000 in damages which makes her eligible to apply for reimbursement for all court costs, expenses and legal fees.

Fox appealed and prevailed February 14, 2003 when an appeals court issued a ruling reversing the jury, accepting a defense argument that had been rejected by three other judges on at least six separate occasions. CLICK HERE for more details on latest ruling. CLICK HERE to view how Fox13 reported the ruling.

The whistle-blowing journalists, twice refused Fox offers of big-money deals to keep quiet about what they knew, filed their landmark lawsuit April 2, 1998 and survived three Fox efforts to have their case summarily dismissed. It is the first time journalists have used a whistleblower law to seek a legal remedy for being fired by for refusing to distort the news. Steve and Jane are now considering an appeal to the Florida state Supreme Court.

http://www.foxbghsuit.com/

alkemical

02-21-2011, 05:13 PM

This is appalling.

alkemical

02-21-2011, 05:32 PM

$3 for a head of lettuce today in my grocery store. My friend that runs a sub shop just paid $70/case of tomatos.

alkemical

02-25-2011, 02:12 PM

Classroom Supermen: A Global Vision for the Future of Education
(http://bigthink.com/ideas/31361?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bigthink%2Fmain+%28Big+Think+ Main%29)

Dominic Basulto on February 25, 2011, 12:56 PM
Avenues

If you had a chance to create the perfect K-12 educational institution from scratch - and if money was no object - how would you do it? You'd probably start by hand-selecting some of the smartest and most talented educators in the world to develop the vision for the school. Then, you'd ask them to implement a radically new global curriculum that ensures that graduates would become leaders on the future world stage. To make this a reality, you'd make sure that the student body had ready access to the finest educational, artistic and athletic resources in the world. For good measure, you'd bring in a world-class architectural firm to design a stunning building and situate the educational institution in the center of one of the most vibrant cities in the world.

That's the vision for Avenues: The World School, a unique for-profit educational institution opening its doors in New York City's High Line district in 2012. The final goal - brought to you by former Yale President Benno Schmidt and educational pioneer Christopher Whittle (founder of Edison Schools) is to create a truly global educational institution with twenty satellite campuses all over the world - in places like India, China, Brazil, Russia and Europe. By the time that they graduate, students will be fluent in Spanish and Mandarin, at home in any international environment, and confident contributors in the arts (thanks to partnerships with NYC art galleries in Chelsea). To make that vision a reality, Whittle and Schmidt have assembled a top-tier leadership team that includes former heads at some of the nation's elite private schools - Hotchkiss, Exeter and Dalton.

So say Kendall Eskine at the City University of New York and colleagues, who asked 57 volunteers to rate how morally questionable a set of scenarios were on a scale of 1 to 100. These included a man eating his already-dead dog, and second cousins engaging in consensual sex. The participants also indicated their political orientation.

Before and halfway through the exercise, participants were given a bitter drink, a sweet juice or water.

Those who drank bitter drinks were much harsher in their judgements than those who drank water, giving scenarios a score that was on average 27 per cent higher. Intriguingly, politically conservative individuals were more strongly affected by bitter tastes than liberals (Psychological Science, DOI: 10.1177/0956797611398497).

Although the mechanisms linking taste and behaviour are not yet clear, the authors ask whether jurors should avoid bitter tastes and whether food preferences play a role in shaping political ideals.

An Austrian research group led by physicist Rainer Blatt suggests a fundamentally novel architecture for quantum computation. They have experimentally demonstrated quantum antennas, which enable the exchange of quantum information between two separate memory cells located on a computer chip. This offers new opportunities to build practical quantum computers. The researchers have published their work in the scientific journal Nature.

Six years ago scientists at the University of Innsbruck realized the first quantum byte — a quantum computer with eight entangled quantum particles; a record that still stands. “Nevertheless, to make practical use of a quantum computer that performs calculations, we need a lot more quantum bits,” says Prof. Rainer Blatt, who, with his research team at the Institute for Experimental Physics, created the first quantum byte in an electromagnetic ion trap. “In these traps we cannot string together large numbers of ions and control them simultaneously.”

To solve this problem, the scientists have started to design a quantum computer based on a system of many small registers, which have to be linked. To achieve this, Innsbruck quantum physicists have now developed a revolutionary approach based on a concept formulated by theoretical physicists Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller. In their experiment, the physicists electromagnetically coupled two groups of ions over a distance of about 50 micrometers. Here, the motion of the particles serves as an antenna.

“The particles oscillate like electrons in the poles of a TV antenna and thereby generate an electromagnetic field,” explains Blatt. “If one antenna is tuned to the other one, the receiving end picks up the signal of the sender, which results in coupling.” The energy exchange taking place in this process could be the basis for fundamental computing operations of a quantum computer.

alkemical

02-28-2011, 07:52 AM

How Powerful is an Apology? http://bit.ly/fpNqdR

alkemical

02-28-2011, 01:29 PM

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/humans_version_3.0/

The next giant leap in human evolution may not come from new fields like genetic engineering or artificial intelligence, but rather from appreciating our ancient brains.

No, wizards have not learned how to transmute lead into gold and they haven't found any rejuvenating elixir of life. But the scholars who write the history of science and technology no longer lump alchemy in with witchcraft as a pseudo-science.

Instead they see alchemy as the proper precursor to modern chemistry.

The modern word "alchemy" comes from the Arabic word "al kemia," which incorporated a spectrum of knowledge of chemical properties and practices from ancient times.

Chemist and historian Lawrence Principe of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland believes that the hardworking alchemists of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a period stretching across the 14th to the 17th centuries, were defamed by being lumped in with charlatans of the 19th century, quacks that were often depicted wearing eccentric costumes and casting spells.

"We're in an alchemical revolution," said Principe during a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February. Principe said that just in the past 30 years articles about alchemy were being accepted into Isis, one of the leading journals devoted to the history of science. Before that a prohibition on alchemical subjects had been in place.

Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis offers a radical new way to treat infectious diseases as the effectiveness of our current antibiotics wanes.

Kary Mullis, a self-proclaimed non-specialist, won the Nobel Prize for developing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique that allows researchers to quickly and cheaply make many copies of single strands of DNA. For the past decade Mullis has been using PCR to create new types of drugs that could soon provide a cure for everything from malaria to anthrax. He tells Seed how he is bridging the gap between disparate scientific fields to devise a radical new way to combat infectious diseases.

Seed: Why do we need to rethink the way we treat infectious diseases?

Kary Mullis: Many pathogens are becoming resistant to our antibiotics. Consider penicillin, for example. We took it from a fungus that grew in the soil and killed bacteria for food. Because of this warfare, some bacteria had developed a resistance via DNA, to penicillin. Over time, they passed this resistance via DNA up to the pathogens that infect our bodies. So now many organisms—like Staphylococcus aureu, the cause of Staph infections—are, in large part, unaffected by penicillin. In this way a lot of bacteria have mutated around our antibiotics.

The standard pharmaceutical response is to go stomping through the jungle trying to find extracts of all the organisms and see if one of them will inhibit the growth of particular bacteria. And that of course will get more and more difficult as time goes on. It is clear that we need another solution.

Seed: What is your solution?

KM: A long time ago they used to speculate that there might be what they called a “silver bullet” for cancer. The idea was that if you could find some molecule that would bind to a cancerous cell but not to a non-cancerous cell and attach a radioactive atom—or some sort of poison—to that molecule, you could cure cancer. It turned out cancer didn’t work that way, but you can take a similar approach to fighting infectious diseases.

My work with PCR allowed for the invention by Craig Tuerk of nucleic aptamers, which are tiny binding molecules that can be designed to attach themselves to harmful bacteria. However, instead of attaching a poison to the other end of the aptamer—as the silver-bullet strategy would call for—I put something on there that is a target for our immune system, a chemical compound with which the immune system is already familiar and to which it is very strongly immune. What you end up with is a drug that will drag this thing to which you are highly immune over to some bacteria you don’t want in your body. And your immune system will attack and kill it.

Seed: Do you have any proof that it works?

KM: Yes, we cured anthrax in mice. If you infect a mouse with anthrax and then wait 24 hours and treat it with a penicillin-type drug, you get about a 40 percent survival rate. But using our drug you get a 100 percent survival rate. Of course, it is unlikely that you are going to get anthrax, but that is sort of a model system.

Seed: It sounds like, at least in theory, the method you have developed could be used to cure any infectious disease.

KM: That’s right. In fact, the science part of it, as far as I’m concerned, is pretty much taken care of. For any particular disease you need a bunch of people to help you because you need organic chemists and infectious disease specialists, but there really aren’t any serious hurdles. A whole lot of people just have to apply the methodology we developed.

Of course, we will need to get through to the big drug companies that can set up human trials and ultimately manufacture the drugs. My reputation will at least get me into their office—though if I make a fool of myself I won’t get to come back.

Seed: Do you think a lot of ideas like yours go overlooked simply because those who have them don’t have your reputation?

KM: Yes, I think supporting early ideas is a really neglected area of science. Where is the foundation that rewards very early ideas that don’t yet have a lab or a company behind them? There are lots of these ideas out there, but nowhere to send them.

What we should be asking about a brand new idea is, “Does it have a chance of ever working?” And if the answer is “yes,” we should consider supporting it. We don’t need to give it a million dollars, just enough money to prove itself. Because today, by the time you get most science prizes, you already have 200 people working on an idea. That’s not when the idea is delicate.

Seed: You have said that you are not a specialist. The non-specialist is an increasingly rare breed in science. What do you understand your role to be in today’s highly specialized scientific research community?

KM: I am undisciplined—a loose cannon on deck is one way to talk about me. The positive spin you can put on it is that I can say to one specialist, “You have got some knowledge that, put together with this guy who is an organic chemist and with this guy who knows about influenza in chickens, can accomplish something that none of us could do on our own.” That sounds corny, but it takes years to make those kinds of connections—and doing so requires people wide open with their interests.

It takes a while for me to find people who really understand what I am trying to do and are willing to play in my arena. That is a valuable thing. To be able to collaborate with people is essential, because we can’t do all the things that we can think about.

The 98% of the human genome that was once considered to be useless “junk” actually plays a vital role in making us unique.

Why Is It Groundbreaking?

DNA works by transcribing its genetic code of A’s, C’,s G’s, and T’s into proteins, which in turn participate in virtually every cell process from metabolism to reproduction. But only 2% of the 3 billion base pairs in the human genome actually code for proteins; the rest, formerly known as junk DNA, were thought to be useless. But as it turns out, five hundred stretches of this dark DNA are exactly the same in humans as they are in mice, which means that they have remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. Scientists hypothesize that if evolution has chosen to leave these segments alone, they must be doing something vastly important, and recent studies have confirmed their role in regulating and activating genes.

Why Should You Care?

Though non-coding DNA is far from fully understood, it has the potential to transform our understanding of cellular life. Clarifying its role in gene regulation and activation will likely have huge impacts on medicine. For example, many diseases like autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy cannot be fully explained by our genes, but the cure may lie in this non-coding DNA. This also has important implications for genetic engineering and bioengineering,

NEW YORK, March 3 (Reuters) - A natural gas compressor
station in southwestern Pennsylvania was returned to service by
early Thursday after the station caught fire on Tuesday, a
spokesman for MarkWest Energy (MWE.N) said.

There were no injuries from the incident and the company
and state officials did not expect there was any evidence of
environmental damage.

The outage briefly impacted gas producer customers that are
serviced from the station, the spokesman said.
(Reporting by Eileen Moustakis;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

Maybe it’s the cyclist in the park, trim under his sleek metallic blue helmet, cruising along the dirt path… at three miles an hour. On his tricycle.

Or perhaps it’s today’s playground, all-rubber-cushioned surface where kids used to skin their knees. And… wait a minute… those aren’t little kids playing. Their mommies—and especially their daddies—are in there with them, coplaying or play-by-play coaching. Few take it half-easy on the perimeter benches, as parents used to do, letting the kids figure things out for themselves.

wimp

Then there are the sanitizing gels, with which over a third of parents now send their kids to school, according to a recent survey. Presumably, parents now worry that school bathrooms are not good enough for their children.

Consider the teacher new to an upscale suburban town. Shuffling through the sheaf of reports certifying the educational “accommodations” he was required to make for many of his history students, he was struck by the exhaustive, well-written—and obviously costly—one on behalf of a girl who was already proving among the most competent of his ninth-graders. “She’s somewhat neurotic,” he confides, “but she is bright, organized and conscientious—the type who’d get to school to turn in a paper on time, even if she were dying of stomach flu.” He finally found the disability he was to make allowances for: difficulty with Gestalt thinking. The 13-year-old “couldn’t see the big picture.” That cleverly devised defect (what 13-year-old can construct the big picture?) would allow her to take all her tests untimed, especially the big one at the end of the rainbow, the college-worthy SAT.

Behold the wholly sanitized childhood, without skinned knees or the occasional C in history. “Kids need to feel badly sometimes,” says child psychologist David Elkind, professor at Tufts University. “We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope.”

Messing up, however, even in the playground, is wildly out of style. Although error and experimentation are the true mothers of success, parents are taking pains to remove failure from the equation…

No, wizards have not learned how to transmute lead into gold and they haven't found any rejuvenating elixir of life. But the scholars who write the history of science and technology no longer lump alchemy in with witchcraft as a pseudo-science.

Instead they see alchemy as the proper precursor to modern chemistry.

The modern word "alchemy" comes from the Arabic word "al kemia," which incorporated a spectrum of knowledge of chemical properties and practices from ancient times.

Chemist and historian Lawrence Principe of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland believes that the hardworking alchemists of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a period stretching across the 14th to the 17th centuries, were defamed by being lumped in with charlatans of the 19th century, quacks that were often depicted wearing eccentric costumes and casting spells.

"We're in an alchemical revolution," said Principe during a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February. Principe said that just in the past 30 years articles about alchemy were being accepted into Isis, one of the leading journals devoted to the history of science. Before that a prohibition on alchemical subjects had been in place.

As with anything else it is dangerous to lump a large group of people into a bin under one lable and assume they are all the same. Alchemy was to some extend a forebearer of modern science, it was a somewhat systematic approach to trying new things, the goal and the intentions were not always honorable, but certainly it was not without importance.

I believe there are 2 reasons why alchemy has been getting a bad rep, one is that it is often simplified as the hunt for turning base metals into gold which is only possible with high powered particle accelerators, and the other I believe is that at the time there were strong religious and political forces trying to eliminate or control any endevour that challenged nature or the status quo.

The seredipitous discovery of phosphorous is a great example of something that was essentially alchemy.

Maybe it’s the cyclist in the park, trim under his sleek metallic blue helmet, cruising along the dirt path… at three miles an hour. On his tricycle.

Or perhaps it’s today’s playground, all-rubber-cushioned surface where kids used to skin their knees. And… wait a minute… those aren’t little kids playing. Their mommies—and especially their daddies—are in there with them, coplaying or play-by-play coaching. Few take it half-easy on the perimeter benches, as parents used to do, letting the kids figure things out for themselves.

wimp

Then there are the sanitizing gels, with which over a third of parents now send their kids to school, according to a recent survey. Presumably, parents now worry that school bathrooms are not good enough for their children.

Consider the teacher new to an upscale suburban town. Shuffling through the sheaf of reports certifying the educational “accommodations” he was required to make for many of his history students, he was struck by the exhaustive, well-written—and obviously costly—one on behalf of a girl who was already proving among the most competent of his ninth-graders. “She’s somewhat neurotic,” he confides, “but she is bright, organized and conscientious—the type who’d get to school to turn in a paper on time, even if she were dying of stomach flu.” He finally found the disability he was to make allowances for: difficulty with Gestalt thinking. The 13-year-old “couldn’t see the big picture.” That cleverly devised defect (what 13-year-old can construct the big picture?) would allow her to take all her tests untimed, especially the big one at the end of the rainbow, the college-worthy SAT.

Behold the wholly sanitized childhood, without skinned knees or the occasional C in history. “Kids need to feel badly sometimes,” says child psychologist David Elkind, professor at Tufts University. “We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope.”

Messing up, however, even in the playground, is wildly out of style. Although error and experimentation are the true mothers of success, parents are taking pains to remove failure from the equation…

Article continues at Psychology Today.

This is why colleges today are overrun by idiots whose lack of work ethic and intellectual ability is made up for by an overinflated sense of entitlement.

If it wasn't for the risk of having to go through an entire and time consuming review process and endless meetings I would institute a policy that every time a grade got challenged and the challenge was incorrect they would an amount of marks equal to what they challenged. If you challenge -5% on an assignenment and you are incorrect you lose extra 5%.

NEW YORK, March 3 (Reuters) - A natural gas compressor
station in southwestern Pennsylvania was returned to service by
early Thursday after the station caught fire on Tuesday, a
spokesman for MarkWest Energy (MWE.N) said.

There were no injuries from the incident and the company
and state officials did not expect there was any evidence of
environmental damage.

The outage briefly impacted gas producer customers that are
serviced from the station, the spokesman said.
(Reporting by Eileen Moustakis;editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

I just watched "Gasland".

A very eye opening, saddening, apalling..Watching people's tap water catch fire was surreal.

alkemical

03-07-2011, 02:23 PM

This is why colleges today are overrun by idiots whose lack of work ethic and intellectual ability is made up for by an overinflated sense of entitlement.

If it wasn't for the risk of having to go through an entire and time consuming review process and endless meetings I would institute a policy that every time a grade got challenged and the challenge was incorrect they would an amount of marks equal to what they challenged. If you challenge -5% on an assignenment and you are incorrect you lose extra 5%.

I agree with that. Ownership.... How do you teach ownership in a disposable culture?

alkemical

03-07-2011, 02:24 PM

http://www.stealthisknowledge.com/free-thinking-mental-illness/

Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.

The DSM-IV is the manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental illnesses and, with each new edition, there are scores of new mental illnesses. Are we becoming sicker? Is it getting harder to be mentally healthy? Authors of the DSM-IV say that it’s because they’re better able to identify these illnesses today. Critics charge that it’s because they have too much time on their hands.

New mental illnesses identified by the DSM-IV include arrogance, narcissism, above-average creativity, cynicism, and antisocial behavior. In the past, these were called “personality traits,” but now they’re diseases.

And there are treatments available.

All of this is a symptom of our over-diagnosing and overmedicating culture. In the last 50 years, the DSM-IV has gone from 130 to 357 mental illnesses. A majority of these illnesses afflict children. Although the manual is an important diagnostic tool for the psychiatric industry, it has also been responsible for social changes. The rise in ADD, bipolar disorder, and depression in children has been largely because of the manual’s identifying certain behaviors as symptoms. A Washington Post article observed that, if Mozart were born today, he would be diagnosed with ADD and “medicated into barren normality.”

According to the DSM-IV, the diagnosis guidelines for identifying oppositional defiant disorder are for children, but adults can just as easily suffer from the disease. This should give any freethinking American reason for worry.

In the new study, Vogt's group dissected 6cm lengths from the small veins in pigs' legs, washed them and stripped away most of the endothelial cells from their inner walls. They then harvested dragline silk from the golden silk spider Nephila clavipes and pulled the silk through the de-cellularized veins, until it filled about one quarter of their diameter. Using adult sheep, the researchers removed a 6cm length of the tibial nerve in the leg. In one group of animals, the gap was bridged with the spider silk constructs; in another, the section of nerve that had been removed was replaced in reverse orientation.

Defects in the animals' gait became apparent immediately after the surgery - the hind limb was partially paralyzed and flexed abnormally. But within three weeks there was a significant improvement, with both groups of animals being able to stand properly. By four months, the animals could stand upright on both hind limbs, the hind limbs moved in co-ordination with one another during walking, and there was no obvious difference in strength between the operated and unoperated limbs.

Ten months after surgery, the sheep were killed and their regenerated nerves examined under the microscope. In both groups of animals, the severed nerve fibres had regrown into the nerve grafts to bridge the 6cm gap; Schwann cells had migrated into the grafts and wrapped themselves around the entire length of the regenerated nerves; and the sodium channels required for generating nerve impulses were distributed irregularly along the fibres. This shows that myelination had occurred properly, with the formation of Nodes of Ranvier, the regular gaps in the myelin sheath at which the sodium channels normally cluster. No trace of residual spider silk was detected in the experimental animals, and there was no sign of inflammation at the repair site, indicating that the silk fibres were absorbed subtly without adverse effects.

These findings could have important applications in reconstructive nerve surgery. This is the first time that a large animal model has been used to study nerve regeneration, and the study is the first in which a defect longer than 2cm in length has been successfully repaired. The spider silk constructs enhanced nerve regeneration at least as effectively as the sheeps' own nerves, and would be advantageous in the clinic, because transplanting large lengths of a patient's own nerves is unfeasible.

An Austrian research group led by physicist Rainer Blatt suggests a fundamentally novel architecture for quantum computation. They have experimentally demonstrated quantum antennas, which enable the exchange of quantum information between two separate memory cells located on a computer chip. This offers new opportunities to build practical quantum computers. The researchers have published their work in the scientific journal Nature.

Six years ago scientists at the University of Innsbruck realized the first quantum byte — a quantum computer with eight entangled quantum particles; a record that still stands. “Nevertheless, to make practical use of a quantum computer that performs calculations, we need a lot more quantum bits,” says Prof. Rainer Blatt, who, with his research team at the Institute for Experimental Physics, created the first quantum byte in an electromagnetic ion trap. “In these traps we cannot string together large numbers of ions and control them simultaneously.”

To solve this problem, the scientists have started to design a quantum computer based on a system of many small registers, which have to be linked. To achieve this, Innsbruck quantum physicists have now developed a revolutionary approach based on a concept formulated by theoretical physicists Ignacio Cirac and Peter Zoller. In their experiment, the physicists electromagnetically coupled two groups of ions over a distance of about 50 micrometers. Here, the motion of the particles serves as an antenna.

“The particles oscillate like electrons in the poles of a TV antenna and thereby generate an electromagnetic field,” explains Blatt. “If one antenna is tuned to the other one, the receiving end picks up the signal of the sender, which results in coupling.” The energy exchange taking place in this process could be the basis for fundamental computing operations of a quantum computer.

Quantum computing is going to be groundbreaking. Theoretically you could move the second particle to the other side of the universe and have a "live feed" by using their movement to send a signal.

alkemical

03-08-2011, 08:09 AM

Quantum computing is going to be groundbreaking. Theoretically you could move the second particle to the other side of the universe and have a "live feed" by using their movement to send a signal.

Harvard University scientists have develop a miniaturized MRI device that could lead to large-scale quantum computers.

The did it by placing a powerful magnet at the scanning tip of an atomic force microscope to create a powerful magnetic field gradient in a volume of space just a few nanometers across. That allows them to stimulate and control the magnetic resonance of single electrons in a way that could easily be adapted for quantum computation.

Looks like the New World Order isn’t going to be a global Big Socialist Government (unless, perhaps, you count corporate socialism). Barry Ritholtz wrote in September of last year:

Every generation or so, a major secular shift takes place that shakes up the existing paradigm. It happens in industry, finance, literature, sports, manufacturing, technology, entertainment, travel, communication, etc.

I would like to discuss the paradigm shift that is occurring in politics.

For a long time, American politics has been defined by a Left/Right dynamic. It was Liberals versus Conservatives on a variety of issues. Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice, Tax Cuts vs. More Spending, Pro-War vs Peaceniks, Environmental Protections vs. Economic Growth, Pro-Union vs. Union-Free, Gay Marriage vs. Family Values, School Choice vs. Public Schools, Regulation vs. Free Markets.

The new dynamic, however, has moved past the old Left Right paradigm. We now live in an era defined by increasing Corporate influence and authority over the individual. These two “interest groups” – I can barely suppress snorting derisively over that phrase – have been on a headlong collision course for decades, which came to a head with the financial collapse and bailouts. Where there is massive concentrations of wealth and influence, there will be abuse of power. The Individual has been supplanted in the political process nearly entirely by corporate money, legislative influence, campaign contributions, even free speech rights.

This may not be a brilliant insight, but it is surely an overlooked one. It is now an Individual vs. Corporate debate – and the Humans are losing.

Consider:

• Many of the regulations that govern energy and banking sector were written by Corporations;

• The biggest influence on legislative votes is often Corporate Lobbying;

• Corporate ability to extend copyright far beyond what original protections amounts to a taking of public works for private corporate usage;

• PAC and campaign finance by Corporations has supplanted individual donations to elections;

• The individuals’ right to seek redress in court has been under attack for decades, limiting their options.

• DRM and content protection undercuts the individual’s ability to use purchased content as they see fit;

• The Supreme Court has ruled that Corporations have Free Speech rights equivalent to people; (So much for original intent!)

None of these are Democrat/Republican conflicts, but rather, are corporate vs. individual issues.

For those of you who are stuck in the old Left/Right debate, you are missing the bigger picture. Consider this about the Bailouts: It was a right-winger who bailed out all of the big banks, Fannie Mae, and AIG in the first place; then his left winger successor continued to pour more money into the fire pit.

Read more here. Bunglaow Bill wrote regarding Ritholtz’s article:

It didn’t take long for the light bulb to go off in my head once I got to the third paragraph to see truth in his article. The first and obvious is the recent bailouts, which included the bailouts to General Motors and Chrysler. The American people were sold on the bailouts being essential to save American jobs; perhaps there is some truth to that. However, it wasn’t long after the bailouts when GM began the talk of closing down American factories and building factories in China, Mexico, and Korea.

Left vs. Right became in government terms corporations vs. individuals. There was no guarantees in the bailouts, nothing that forced automakers to invest in our country. It was just easy money thrown their way at the expense of the taxpayer to make up for their bad corporate decisions.

We see it in the biotech business. I hate to say this, but I see the same thing developing thanks to a bad decision by our Supreme Court that allows corporations to patent life. This has led to Monsanto and other corporations taking over the nation’s food supply by forcing farmers to use genetically modified seeds thanks to pollen that contaminates farmers fields who worked hard to provide a healthy alternative to GMO foods. Innocent farmers are being taken down the river because surrounding farmers planted Monsanto seeds and the wind blew the pollen in their direction. Once the pollen mixes with a pure field, Monsanto sends it’s lawyers ready to make honest family farmers pay up for patent infringement.

Monsanto sends their Monsanto police teams onto private property spraying Round Up in non-Monstanto fields to see if the corn dies or not. If it doesn’t die, Monsanto then accuses farmers of the unauthorized use of their seeds. The problem, like I said, may revolved around the wind cross pollinating with a Monsanto GMO field.

Farmers are losing everything they have worked for all their lives over this practice. I think it’s wrong.

From 2001 on, it seems like Republicans became moderate liberal Democrats–ready to spend money and grow government. While Americans are angry at Democrats for threatening more Constitutional rights, it’s hard not to point out the Republicans set all of this up with the Patriot Act. We have known for more than a year, Obama wants to increase the power the Patriot Act gave the government to track people.

Read more at Bungalow Bill’s Conservative Wisdom.

alkemical

03-08-2011, 11:09 AM

I personally think 3D printing is a tool we can use to compete with China:

Read more: In Colorado, some famous faces, names get ag-land tax breaks, too - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17553507#ixzz1G7DeaRvy
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Brian McCarthy ran a website, channelsurfing.net, that linked to various sites where you could watch online streams of TV shows and sports networks. A couple months ago, the government seized his domain name and on Friday they arrested him and charged him with criminal copyright infringement -- punishable by five years in prison.

We just obtained a copy of the complaint (below) that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made against him -- and they don't even allege that he made a copy of anything! Just that he ran what they call a "linking website" which linked to various sites with copyrighted material. Under that sort of thinking, everyone who's sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal.

This is another shocking overreach by DHS and ICE -- a steamship-era department that's proving once again that it doesn't understand the Internet. We need to push back -- and fast -- before they try to lock up more Americans.

PETITION TO JANET NAPOLITANO, DIRECTOR OF HOMELAND SECURITY, AND JOHN MORTON, DIRECTOR OF IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: There's nothing wrong or illegal about posting a link to a website. This is another shocking overreach by ICE: You need to drop the charges against Brian McCarthy right away.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE: we'll deliver the petition to DHS and ICE later this month.

1. Seek Novelty – “People who rate high on Openness are constantly seeking new information, new activities to engage in, new things to learn—new experiences in general.”

2. Challenge Yourself – “Individual brain training games don’t make you smarter—they make you more proficient at the brain training games,” Kuszewski writes. “Once you master one of those cognitive activities in the brain-training game, you need to move on to the next challenging activity. Figure out how to play Sudoku? Great! Now move along to the next type of challenging game.” (Previous Technoccult coverage)

3. Think Creatively – “Contrary to popular belief, creative thinking does not equal ‘thinking with the right side of your brain.’ It involves recruitment from both halves of your brain, not just the right.” (Previous coverage)

4. Do Things the Hard Way “There are times when using technology is warranted and necessary. But there are times when it’s better to say no to shortcuts and use your brain, as long as you can afford the luxury of time and energy.”

5. Network “By networking with other people—either through social media such as Facebook or Twitter, or in face-to-face interactions—you are exposing yourself to the kinds of situations that are going to make objectives 1-4 much easier to achieve.” (Previous coverage)

To check whether more has been learned about the double sun effect since the time of Minnaert's writing, Life's Little Mysteries consulted several atmospheric optics experts. None of them had ever seen anything quite like the effect shown in the video.

"This is not a common optical phenomenon that we're seeing here," said Grant Perry, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Institute for Satellite and Meteorological Studies. "I'm asking myself if this is an artifact of the lens, but if that were the case – if it's reflections of the lens elements – then the images would move in relation to each other as the camera moves," Perry said. "But that doesn't happen."

In terms of an optical explanation, he said, "You would have to assume it is particles of ice or something in the atmosphere aligned in such a way that they would refract the sunlight at that very small angle, but only in one direction. It would require some fairly peculiar characteristics."

Several related atmospheric optical effects are fully explained by science. Sun dogs, sunset mirages, sun pillars and sun halos are all relatively common and well understood. But not this effect.

How Women Are Changing the Web
Dominic Basulto on March 8, 2011, 12:24 AM
Laptop_girl

If the Web had a gender, it would be female. There, I've said it. Despite all the traditional indicators typically cited - such as the declining number of women signing up for computer science majors at our nation's universities or the relatively small number of female tech CEOs - the future of the Web is largely being determined by women, and it's not just a matter of demographics. Yes, women now account for more than 50% of the workforce for the first time ever, but the way we think about and use the Web is also changing.

The Web is less about coding and programming, and more about design and aesthetics. Just a few years ago, go-to destinations on the Internet for Web designers would have included sites like Slashdot; now they also include sites like Swiss Miss and Core 77. As a result, typical surveys that examine the number of people in Internet-related fields are likely under-counting the number of women. When it comes to the Web, roles like "social media strategist" and "community manager" are just as likely to be women as men.

alkemical

03-10-2011, 07:05 AM

People don't understand Cognitive Liberty:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_liberty

Cognitive liberty is the freedom to be the absolute sovereignty of the individual’s own consciousness. It is an extension of the concepts of freedom of thought and self-ownership.[citation needed]

The American nonprofit Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, founded and directed by neuroethicist Dr. Wrye Sententia and legal theorist Richard Glen Boire, defines cognitive liberty as "the right of each individual to think independently and autonomously, to use the full spectrum of his or her mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought."[1]

___

Now, I don't want to get into the politics regarding their stance on the freedom of/from drugs, but i'll drop some knowledge here so it's disclosed:

An individual who enjoys cognitive liberty is free to alter the state of their consciousness using any method they choose, including but not limited to meditation, yoga, psychoactive drugs, prayer and so on. Such an individual would also never be forced to change their consciousness against their will. So, for example, a child who is forced to consume Ritalin as a prerequisite for attending public school, does not enjoy cognitive liberty, nor does an individual who is forced to take anti-psychotics in order to be fit to stand trial, nor an individual who faces criminal charges and punishment for changing the state of their consciousness by consuming a mind-altering drug, although other explanations for criminalization of some drugs do not fit this argument.[citation needed]

We're playing with half a deck as long as we tolerate that the cardinals of government and science should dictate where human curiosity can legitimately send its attention and where it can not. It's an essentially preposterous situation. It is essentially a civil rights issue, because what we're talking about here is the repression of a religious sensibility. In fact, not a religious sensibility, the religious sensibility.
—American freethinker Terence McKenna in: Non-Ordinary States Through Vision Plants, Sound Photosynthesis, Mill Valley CA., 1988, ISBN 1-569-64709-7

American psychologist and writer Timothy Leary has summarized this concept by postulating two “new commandments for the molecular age”:

* Thou shalt not alter the consciousness of thy fellow men.
* Thou shalt not prevent thy fellow man from changing his or her own consciousness.[2]

Neuroethics is the ethics of neuroscience, and the neuroscience of ethics.[1]

The ethics of neuroscience deals with matters as a subclass of bioethics. Examples include the issue of mind control via the administration of psychopharmaceuticals substances, such as whether or not to give mind altering drugs to an autistic person to make them more "normal",[2] or the ethics of brain surgery such as performing an anterior commissurotomy to control epilepsy,[3] a consequentialist moral anthropologist considering the consequences of Mayan brain surgery, or a politician considering the ethics of war and the use of brainwashing techniques,[4] or the ethics of speech writing to control the mind of a crowd.[4]

The neuroscience of ethics deals with questions of moral development in the child, as in work of Piaget in the 20th century, or more modern theories of free will that derive from evolutionary theories and molecular biology.[5]

The origin of the term "neuroethics" has occupied some writers. Rees and Rose (as cited in "References" on page 9) claim neuroethics is a neologism that emerged only at the beginning of the 21st century, largely through the oral and written communications of ethicists and philosophers. They state that neuroethics addresses concerns about the effects that neuroscience and neurotechnology will have on other aspects of human life, specifically personal responsibility, law, and justice. Further, they claim that neuroethical problems will become real by the 2020s.

Adina Roskies identified two major divisions in neuroethics: the ethics of neuroscience and the neuroscience of ethics.[6] Research falling under the first area, the ethics of neuroscience, is focused on the ethics of practice of neuroscience and "the implications of our mechanistic understanding of brain function for society... integrating neuroscientific knowledge with ethical and social thought". The neuroscience of ethics borrows from the field of neurophilosophy and examines the neurological foundations of moral cognition.[6]

So what does the DSM now have to say:

http://www.stealthisknowledge.com/free-thinking-mental-illness/

Is nonconformity and freethinking a mental illness? According to the newest addition of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), it certainly is. The manual identifies a new mental illness called “oppositional defiant disorder” or ODD. Defined as an “ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior,” symptoms include questioning authority, negativity, defiance, argumentativeness, and being easily annoyed.

The DSM-IV is the manual used by psychiatrists to diagnose mental illnesses and, with each new edition, there are scores of new mental illnesses. Are we becoming sicker? Is it getting harder to be mentally healthy? Authors of the DSM-IV say that it’s because they’re better able to identify these illnesses today. Critics charge that it’s because they have too much time on their hands.

New mental illnesses identified by the DSM-IV include arrogance, narcissism, above-average creativity, cynicism, and antisocial behavior. In the past, these were called “personality traits,” but now they’re diseases.

And there are treatments available.

All of this is a symptom of our over-diagnosing and overmedicating culture. In the last 50 years, the DSM-IV has gone from 130 to 357 mental illnesses. A majority of these illnesses afflict children. Although the manual is an important diagnostic tool for the psychiatric industry, it has also been responsible for social changes. The rise in ADD, bipolar disorder, and depression in children has been largely because of the manual’s identifying certain behaviors as symptoms. A Washington Post article observed that, if Mozart were born today, he would be diagnosed with ADD and “medicated into barren normality.”

According to the DSM-IV, the diagnosis guidelines for identifying oppositional defiant disorder are for children, but adults can just as easily suffer from the disease. This should give any freethinking American reason for worry.

Although the authors of the manual claim no ulterior motives but simply better diagnostic practices, the labeling of freethinking and nonconformity as mental illnesses has a lot of potential for abuse. It can easily become a weapon in the arsenal of a repressive state.

House passes the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act"

First let’s take a look at the definitions of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill.

The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this term of promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an extremist agenda. Since the bill doesn’t specifically define what an extremist belief system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the government. Considering how much the government has done to destroy the Constitution they could even define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an extremist belief system. Literally, the government according to this definition can define whatever they want as an extremist belief system. Essentially they have defined violent radicalization as thought crime. The definition as defined in the bill is shown below.

`(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization' means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change.

The definition of homegrown terrorism uses equally vague language to further define thought crime. The bill includes the planned use of force or violence as homegrown terrorism which could be interpreted as thinking about using force or violence. Not only that but the definition is so vaguely defined, that petty crimes could even fall into the category of homegrown terrorism. The definition as defined in the bill is shown below.

So we have a war on Cognitive liberty, THOUGHT...FREE THOUGHT. What happens as this new language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak) that is defined by "The State". So now we have a virus of thought that is propagating it's way through out brains that consume this message.

We've seen VNR's used by the Executive Branch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release), and we know that a % of callers to "talk radio" shows are paid propaganda (http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fboingboing.net%2F2011%2F03%2F07%2 Fglenn-becks-syndicat.html&rct=j&q=glenn%20beck%20astroturf&ei=juB4TdatOsGY0QG09LD0Aw&usg=AFQjCNE4dUtyUex6fe_nbhimIr5o30szyA&sig2=HfSWuncmzoinUZb7OliVHQ&cad=rja).

Which brings up propaganda techniques (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Propaganda_techniques):

Rhetorical Techniques

During the period between World Wars I and II, the now-defunct Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) developed a list of common rhetorical techniques used for propaganda purposes. Their list included the following:

Most people base their arguments on "something they heard/saw/read/etc", this is "Argument from Authority" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority):

Examples of appeals to authority
[edit] Arguments

* Referring to the philosophical beliefs of Aristotle: "If Aristotle said it was so, it is so."
* Referring to a famous text or work: "Democracy in America criticized American political party division, so we ought to promote bipartisanship."
* Quoting a well-known personage: "As Samuel Johnson said, patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." Implying that, therefore, patriotism is always bad. (The term "patriot" was used at the time by radical followers of John Wilkes, whom the conservative Johnson opposed); or "There is no need to critically examine Plan A because [person's name] is in favour of it, and [person's name] is [experienced, knowledgeable, respected] in this field."
* Referring to what one is told by one's teacher and/or parent: "My teacher said so, therefore it must be so."
* Believing something because it is attributed to an honored profession, as in: "This doctor recommends (brand-name) aspirin" or "Bankers recommend that people have six months' wages in a savings account".
* Appealing to some reference or citation from a famous book or author without considering the actual truth of the citation. References in no way ensure, without any doubt, that the claim is true. References simply show where the information or claim possibly originated and to avoid plagiarism.
* Appeals to various well known opinion poll firms that are assumed to have collected the best data from a large enough sample, and that there were no leading questions.

[edit] The nature of the fallacy

An appeal to authority cannot guarantee the truth of the conclusion, given the nature of truth and the Consensus theory of truth, because the fact that an authority says something does not necessarily make it so. The fact that, objectively, a proposition is in fact true or that it has good unrelated arguments supporting it will be what makes authorities believe it to be true. The fallacy comes in when the opposite situation occurs, with authority opinions leading to the belief itself. Thus, an appeal to authority confuses cause and effect.

As with all logical fallacies, the fact that an argument is an appeal to authority does not make its conclusion untrue (this line of thought is sometimes known as the logical fallacy fallacy) and does not make it unreasonable to believe the truth of the argument. It also must be noted that a rigorous concept of truth is a complex subject. In informal logic, the fact that a majority of experts in a given field believe X—for example, the fact that nearly all medical scientists think that HIV causes AIDS and reject AIDS denialism—makes it more reasonable for a person without knowledge in the field to believe X.

The bandwagon fallacy is very similar to the appeal to authority, given that it—with popular opinion being cited in support of an idea rather than popular opinion coming to believe an idea based on the idea's own inherent truth—confuses cause and effect in the same way. In normal conversation, these two fallacies frequently intermingle. For example, consider the statement: "Basically everyone, economic experts included, supports the financial bailout and so must I."

So when people argue via Authority, they are only advertising. They aren't thinking for themselves...but the trick is...THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW IT. That's the rub, they are made to think they thought it.

How does this work? Faith & Trust. They feel that their source for information is TRUSTED. They don't look at their source's agenda, or what profit is to be gained.

How can you have a conversation with someone who is only waiting to repeat the same message over and over again...?

As you know, one of the key points in the GOPAC tapes is that "language matters." In the video "We Are a Majority," Language is listed as a key mechanism of control used by a majority party, along with Agenda, Rules, Attitude and Learning. As the tapes have been used in training sessions across the country and mailed to candidates, we have heard a plaintive plea: "I wish I could speak like Newt."

That takes years of practice. But we believe that you could have a significant impact on your campaign and the way you communicate if we help a little. That is why we have created this list of words and phrases.

This list is prepared so that you might have a directory of words to use in writing literature and mail, in preparing speeches, and in producing electronic media. The words and phrases are powerful. Read them. Memorize as many as possible. And remember that, like any tool, these words will not help if they are not used....

...third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)

--source link

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Contrasting Words

Often we search hard for words to help us define our opponents. Sometimes we are hesitant to use contrast. Remember that creating a difference helps you. These are powerful words that can create a clear and easily understood contrast. Apply these to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."

"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it."

G.I. Joe used them to battle Cobra’s evil forces. Han solo shot his first in the Mos Eisley Cantina. For years, hand-held pulse laser guns have been something that existed only in the realm of cartoons and movies…until now.

German hacker [Patrick Priebe] recently constructed a laser pulse gun that looks so good, it could have easily come off a Hollywood movie set. Its sleek white and black exterior adds intrigue, but offers little warning as to how powerful the gun actually is.

Fitted with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, it fires off a 1 MW blast of infrared light once the capacitors have fully charged. The duration of the laser pulse is somewhere near 100ns, so he was unable to catch it on camera, but its effects are easily visible in whatever medium he has fired upon. The laser can burst balloons, shoot through plastic, and even blow a hole right through a razor blade.

[Patrick] says that he is more than happy to help out anyone looking to source parts and build one for their own use, so what are you waiting for?

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has just announced a breakthrough discovery in the world of biofuels. Led by Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the research team headed up by the Department’s BioEnergy Science Center has developed a cost effective method for converting woody plants straight into isobutanol, which can be used in conventional car engines like gasoline. The new discovery will not only provide a feasible and important alternative to oil, but have potential to create a considerable amount of new jobs in rural parts of the country.

Non-edible woody plant matter is the focus material for the biofuel endeavor, and scientists have been on the hunt for a cost effective way to break down the cellulose to obtain the soft innards which could be used for fuel. Scientists have now pinpointed a microbe, the Clostridium celluloyticum, able to process the cellulose. The same microbes have also been proven effective in cleaning up polluted sites, powering fuel cells, and even transforming wastewater into bioplastic. The new super microbe is also able to break down plant matter and produce isobutanol in one relatively inexpensive step, as compared to conventional biofuel production which requires a multi-stage process using various microbes that complete different functions.

In his announcement Chu also pointed out that biofuel production has the potential to create new jobs in rural parts of the country by putting more farmland into production. But it is worth noting that the DOE’s new isobutanol process does not necessarily rely on new agricultural – apart from cultivated biofuel crops, the mircrobes can also process woody waste from other crops including wheat and rice straw, corn stover, and lumber waste. It is the handling, transporting and refining of the wate that could potentially generate new jobs.

alkemical

03-10-2011, 01:19 PM

http://www.humpjones.com/rear/entry/banksy_pure_****ing_truth/

Banksy = Pure ****ing Truth

Posted Mar 10, 2011
...DON’T EVER ASK ME IF I WROTE THIS.

People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

**** that. Any advert in public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not, is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and reuse. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

In an aggressive bid to entice prospective “sex tourists,” the Department of Homeland Security last year launched an undercover web site that purported to arrange trips from the U.S. to Canada, where clients could engage in sexual activity with minors, The Smoking Gun has learned.

The “Precious Treasure Holiday Company” web site was active until a few weeks ago when its Massachusetts-based web hosting firm removed the site from its servers, apparently in response to a complaint about its content. Now, visitors to precioustreasureholidaycompany.com are greeted with the message, “This site has been suspended.”

After a year online, the DHS undercover site may have fallen victim to its own sleazy, overt come-on. As seen at right, the site’s front page carried three symbols that an FBI intelligence bulletin has identified as being used by pedophiles. Additionally, the site’s acronym, PTHC, is an allusion to “preteen hardcore” pornography. The site’s carefully misspelled motto--“We Help Make Your Fantasy’s Come True!”--also does little to mask its illicit intentions.

An account executive with the hosting firm, who appeared unaware that “Precious Treasure Holiday Company” was a government operation, said that following a site’s suspension an internal investigation is launched. Upon the review’s completion, a site is either reinstated or reminated. The executive, Jason Crawford, added that if a customer’s site is found to contain illicit material like child pornography, the FBI is contacted.

alkemical

03-11-2011, 06:56 AM

References to dumbing down in popular culture

* The 2005 film Idiocracy portrays a society 500 years in the future massively dumbed down by low-IQ people enthusiastically outbreeding the most intelligent parts of society.
* Pop group The Divine Comedy sing about "mindless fluff" on television in their song "Dumb it Down" from their album Regeneration.
* British Anarcho-Folk band Chumbawamba portray culture in the United States as growing increasingly simplistic and mindless in their song Dumbing Down
* American hip hop trio Ugly Duckling lambasts the trend in American discourse of "dumbing down", with their song Dumb It Down.
* American rapper Lupe Fiasco attacks dumbing down lyrics on his song "Dumb It Down" saying "They told me I should come down cousin, but I flatly refuse, I ain't dumbin' down nothing."
* American rapper Jay-Z was quoted on the song "Moment of Clarity" off of his "Black Album" saying, "I dumb down for my audience and double my dollars / they criticize me for it; but they all yell 'holla!'"

Data-gathering firms and technology companies are aggressively matching people’s TV-viewing behavior with other personal data—in some cases, prescription-drug records obtained from insurers—and using it to help advertisers buy ads targeted to shows watched by certain kinds of people.

At the same time, cable and satellite companies are testing and deploying new systems designed to show households highly targeted ads.

The goal: emulate the sophisticated tracking widely used on people’s personal computers with new technology that reaches the living room.

One of the most advanced companies, Cablevision Systems Corp., has rolled out a system that can show entirely different commercials, in real time, to different households tuned to the same program. It can deliver targeted ads to all the company’s three million subscribers concentrated in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.

In an early test of Cablevision’s technology, the U.S. Army used it to target four different recruitment ads to different categories of viewers.